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| Former Bishop Jose Romeo Lazo of Kalibo celebrates Mass |
CATHOLIC Church members in the violence-prone province of Aklan are praying that the Pope appoints a bishop for Kalibo diocese quickly to provide moral guidance and leadership in the run-up to the May general elections.
Father Emmanuel Mijares, rector of the Santo Nino Seminary in the town of Numancia, said people look on the bishop as guardian of the electoral process “to keep them honest and credible.”
“He instructs his flock on the qualities of a good candidate and shows Church teachings on political platforms that care for life, justice, and good governance,” Father Mijares told UCA News.
This year, leadership for clergy and other Church members is also crucial as “people here are discussing possible scenarios, including failure of the election,” the seminary rector added.
The diocese serves Aklan province, some 350 kilometers southeast of Manila, where seven towns are listed by the police as election-violence “hot spots.” A village leader’s campaign manager was shot dead on Easter Sunday.
On March 19, unidentified men lobbed two grenades in the house of a councilor in Lezo town.
Catholic teacher Nenita Villarubia of Lezo told UCA News that she also wants to have a bishop so new priests can be ordained.
Ordinations put on hold
The diocese has three deacons whose ordinations have been put on hold until the local bishop approves them, Villarubia said.
“We will have no new priest in the Diocese of Kalibo until we have a bishop,” she said.
However, Monsignor Jose Dollete, pastor of St. John the Baptist cathedral parish, told UCA News an appointment now will not resolve pressing issues. He cited other administrative concerns.
”Unless the new bishop comes from here, he will not know the situation and will be slow to act,” the parish priest said April 14. He estimates a new bishop “will need at least 60 days to take over and have any effect.”
With two empty bishops’ seats in the Philippines, four archbishops having reached the retirement age of 75, and the two cardinals past retirement age, the Pope wants to make new bishops, the Philippine ambassador to the Holy See has reportedly said.
A recent Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news report had quoted Mercedes Tuazon saying that apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, told her Pope Benedict XVI is interested in appointing more Filipino bishops soon.
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