Manila has new auxiliary bishop

The Archdiocese of Manila has a new auxiliary bishop.

Monsignor Benardino Cortez was appointed by the Vatican as the new auxiliary bishop of Manila.

The appointment leaves Cortez as the lone auxiliary bishop of Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales.

During the time of former Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, Manila had two auxiliary bishops — Bishop Teodoro Buhain, who resigned, and Bishop Socrates Villegas, who was assigned to the Diocese of Balanga, Bataan.

Born in Baclaran in Parañaque, the 54-year-old Cortez has a master’s degree in theology from Switzerland’s prestigious Fribourg University. After entering the Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary at the age of 15, he studied philosophy and theology at the San Carlos Seminary in Manila from 1967 to 1974.

Ordained in 1974, Cortez served as a parish priest in Kalayaan, Laguna, and as a chaplain in a public school in Tondo, Manila. The well-traveled priest also spent three years doing pastoral ministry in France.

Cortez had also been appointed the spiritual director of seminaries in San Pablo City, Tagaytay City and Laguna.

In 2000, Cortez became the parish priest of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus in Los Baños, Laguna, where he holds the concurrent position of diocesan administrator of San Pablo.

No date has been set for Cortez’s installation as auxiliary bishop.