Pinoy priest in NY succumbs to COVID-19

Monsignor Romualdo A. Sosing, the first Filipino parish priest in Long Island, New York in the United States, has died of COVID-19. He was 67 years old.

A native of Northern Samar, the Filipino priest died at a hospital in New York on Sunday evening after weeks of battling the viral disease.

Monsignor Sosing was serving his second term as pastor of the Holy Name of Mary Parish in Valley Stream when he contracted the virus early May, said the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

The parish announced the passing of Sosing in a Facebook post.

“It is with great sadness that at 6:15 tonight, Msgr. Sosing, surrounded by his family, had passed and is now at peace,” the parish said.

The Holy Name of Mary School also expressed its sadness on the untimely death of the priest.

“Monsignor Rom was a man of great faith, who believed in the power of prayer, especially the rosary. He was a kind and gentle man, and he will be greatly missed,” said Pam Sanders, school principal.

Ordained priest for the Diocese of Catarman in 1977, Msgr. Sosing served the Diocese of Rockville Centre since 2004. He previously served as administrator of St. Luke’s Church, Brentwood, and as associate pastor of Notre Dame, New Hyde Park and St. Dominic, Oyster Bay.

Sosing became a US citizen in 2013.

In related news, the CBCP said, Augustinian Filipino missionary Fr. Gilbert Luis Centina III, an award-winning author and poet, died of COVID-19 in León city in northwest Spain on May 1. He was 72.

In the Philippines, the first priest to die from the viral disease was reported in the Davao region.

Fr. Arnel Celis of the Diocese of Tagum died on April 27 and was the first COVID19 death in Tagum City.