Bishop Cosme Damian Almedilla
BUTUAN CITY — Catholic Bishop Cosme Damian Almedilla assumed the leadership of the Diocese of Butuan on Tuesday with a vow to follow Pope Francis’ call to protect the environment and to serve the poor.
“Although I need to study and assess several aspects as to the direction we will take, our advocacy will stay, especially that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has emphasized our call toward the care for the poor and our ecology,” said Almedilla on the eve of his ordination at the St. Joseph Cathedral here.
Almedilla had served a parish in Talibon town, Bohol province for 17 years before he was named Butuan bishop in March. Before his Bohol assignment, he served in the Immaculate Conception parish church in Wao town, Lanao del Sur province, where the church’s campaign to protect the environment had brought threats to their lives.
Fighting loggers
He said a fellow priest, Fr. Nerilito Satur, known as the “green priest” and a deputized forest ranger, was killed in an ambush on Oct. 14, 1991 at Barangay Guinoyoran in Valencia, Bukidnon. He said Satur’s murder was linked to the priest’s campaign against illegal logging.
“When [Satur] was murdered, our lives were endangered. We received more death threats. I acted like Peter who ran away upon seeing the awful fate of the Master, acting no more than a hireling rather than a faithful shepherd to his flock. Out of fear, I ended up asking to be [transferred] from the Diocese of Malaybalay (Bukidnon), and returned to my home diocese in Talibon in 2002,” he said.
“But after serving 17 years in Talibon, here comes the moment of truth, of finding myself being sent back to Mindanao,” Almedilla said.
Third bishop
Almedilla is the third bishop to serve the Diocese of Butuan, which has 62 parishes and an estimated 1.5 million Roman Catholics in the provinces of Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur.
He succeeded Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, who served from 1995 until his death on Oct. 21, 2017. Butuan’s first bishop, Carmelo Morelos, served the diocese from 1967 to 1994.
Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro served as the apostolic administrator of the Butuan diocese after Pueblos died. —ERWIN MASCARIÑAS