Newsbriefs

CEBUANA NO. 2 IN THERAPIST BOARD

ABIGAIL Villarin Soroño of Cebu Doctors’ University ranked 2nd in the October 2013 Respiratory Therapist Licensure Examination, the Professional Regulation Commission announced yesterday.

Soroño garnered a rating of 84 percent and shared the rank with Rinaliza Patting Bogsulen of Pines City College.

Roderick Macababbad Tumanguil of Emilio Aguinaldo College-Manila topped the examination with a rating of 85.75 percent. Nine other graduates from Emilio Aguinaldo College-Manila garnered the 10 highest places. Inquirer

PALMA ORDAINS SIX SEMINARIANS

SIX seminarians were yesterday ordained as deacons by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma in ordination rites held at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Cebu City yesterday.

“Three priests in Cebu passed away this year. But we are given six new deacons whom the Lord called and chose as a manifestation of His love for us,” Palma told the congregation during Mass.

Marco Ladao, Pepito Batomalaque, Marcial Mangubat, William Alcalde, Gonzalo Candado, and Harvey Argoncillo were inducted into the diaconate, the first of three ranks in ordained ministry.

As deacons, they are tasked to help priests, bishops and cardinals in the distribution of Holy Communion and proclamation of the Gospel.

They are also allowed to deliver homilies and preside over baptismal rites.

The diaconate ordination took place at the height of a controversy involving Cebuano priest Oscar Banzon who defied church laws when he ran and won as barangay captain of Kawit in Medellin town, northern Cebu.

In an interview after the Mass, Palma said he was told that Banzon went to the Archbishop’s Residence to meet with him last Monday.

But he said they didn’t have the chance to talk since he had a prior engagement..

Palma, also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the incident involving Banzon should not mirror what the clergy has become.

“The case of Fr. Banzon is an isolated case. There 380 priests (in the Archdiocese of Cebu). He’s the only one who ran for public office. If we’ll have the chance to talk with each other, I will tell him that I have served the suspension and he should think twice if that’s the life he chose for himself,” the prelate said.

As part of the promise an ordained person makes, Palma said they should live up to the vows of the vocation—poverty, chastity and obedience.

A diaconate ordination is the first of three parts of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Deacons will later on become priests while some priests will eventually become bishops.

The Cebu Archdiocese usually holds the presbyterial or priestly ordination every June. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol