Manila has new auxiliary bishop

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Fr. Broderick Socuaco Pabillo as new auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Manila, the National Office of Mass Media announced last night.

Pabillo will become the official assistant of Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales in leading the clergy and faithful in the oldest archdiocese in the country.

Pabillo, 51, will be replacing Bishop Bernardino Cortez.

Pabillo’s appointment, which was released simultaneously in Vatican and Manila, was the first ecclesiastical appointment announced by the new Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Fernando Filoni.

NOMM executive secretary Fr. James Reuter noted the appointment was interesting since Pabillo was "relatively young to be appointed as bishop."

A Don Bosco priest, Pabillo was born on March 11, 1955 in Negros Oriental. He was officially ordained as a member of the clergy on Dec. 8, 1982.

Pabillo finished elementary and high school at Don Bosco College in Pampanga before he entered the seminary in the same school in Laguna.

He also holds a degree in theology from University of Sto. Tomas.

Pabillo continued postgraduate studies at the Biblicum in Rome before he became a rector of Salesian Theologate in Parañaque City from 1996 to 1999.

Prior to his appointment as the new auxiliary bishop, Pabillo was parish priest at the St. Ezequiel Moreno Parish in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

The NOMM said no date has been announced for the Episcopal ordination and official installation of Pabillo as the new auxiliary bishop of Manila. — Edu Punay