Vatican names new bishop of Laoag

MANILA, Philippines—The Vatican on Friday announced the appointment of the new bishop of Laoag, Ilocos Norte.

Pope Benedict XVI named Lingayen-Dagupan Auxilliary Bishop Renato Mayugba, 56, as the new head of the Laoag diocese, according to a report on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website.

“The appointment was made public in the Vatican on Friday at 12 noon (6p.m., Manila time),” the report said.

The Laoag diocese, which has around 500,000 Catholics and covers the province of Ilocos Norte, has been a vacant see since June 2011, when its former bishop, Sergio Utleg, was named Archbishop of Tuguegarao in Cagayan.

Manila-born

Mayugba was born on Dec. 4, 1955, in Sampaloc, Manila, and went to Grade School at Saint Louis University in Baguio City. When he was 12 years old, he entered the Minor Seminary at Binmaley in Pangasinan, according to the CBCP.

He did his Philosophy and Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, and was ordained at the age of 25. Mayugba then went to the University of Angelicum in Rome to obtain his Licentiate in Sacred Theology.

He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan on April 25, 1981, and served mostly in seminaries.

For three years, he was rector of the Orientation Seminary in Bonuan, Dagupan, and then dean and rector of the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Vigan.

Mayugba was serving as Rector of Mary Help of Christians College Seminary in Dagupan when he was ordained as auxiliary bishop to then Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Naga bishop

Meanwhile, Infanta Bishop Rolando Tirona will be officially installed as the new archbishop of Caceres at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Naga City on November 14.

The pope named him bishop of Infanta on June 28, 2003.

Tirona, 66, will take over the diocese from retired Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi, 76, who led the more than one million Catholics in Camarines Sur for 28 years.

The archbishop-elect was born on July 22, 1946, in Sampaloc, Manila. In 1967, he joined the Order of Discalced Carmelites. He was ordained a priest on April 21, 1974.

In November 1994, Pope John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Manila. In December 1996, he was named bishop of Malolos.