Bishop Ricardo Baccay installed as Tuguegarao’s 8th archbishop

Catholic devotees witness the installation of Archbishop Ricardo Baccay at the Saints Peter and Paul Metropolitan Church in Tuguegarao City. Photo by Edison Neil Lacambra/Contributor

TUGUEGARAO CITY –– Bishop Ricardo Baccay was installed as the new archbishop of Tuguegarao on Tuesday.

Catholic devotees witnessed Baccay’s installation at the Saints Peter and Paul Metropolitan Church here.

The Archdiocese of Tuguegarao has jurisdiction over the Roman Catholic’s ecclesiastical parishes in the Cagayan Valley region.

Baccay succeeded Archbishop Sergio Utleg, 76, who served the archdiocese for eight years.

Pope Francis had approved the resignation of Utleg in October last year after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Baccay, who served as the bishop of Alaminos since 2016, is the eighth archbishop of Tuguegarao.

He was born in 1961 in this city and was ordained a priest in 1987.

In 2007, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Tuguegarao. Nine years later, he was transferred as Bishop of Alaminos in Pangasinan.

Within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Baccay has been serving as chairman of the Commission on Bioethics.

During the bishops’ plenary assembly in July last year, he was also elected member of the new CBCP Permanent Council who will serve over the next two years.

Edited by Lzb