Pinoy priest named Pope’s envoy to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a Filipino prelate to be his official representative to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the National Office of Mass Media announced yesterday.

Archbishop Francisco Padilla, who was raised in Cebu, is the third Filipino assigned by the Vatican as Papal Nuncio. His older brother, Archbishop Osvaldo Padilla, is the first Filipino Nuncio, and is currently assigned to Costa Rica.

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal announced Padilla’s appointment during the new Nuncio’s Episcopal Ordination at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral last Tuesday. Fernando Filoni, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, 13 other bishops, some 100 priests and local government officials attended the solemn ceremony.

Vidal said that the appointment of a second Padilla from the same family in Cebu is a historic event that should be celebrated not only by Cebuanos, but also by the entire Catholic hierarchy in the country as well.

"It is certainly an occasion of great joy for the local Church of Cebu, as well as for the whole country. Archbishop Padilla’s appointment as the third Filipino Nuncio, the second from Cebu and more so from the same Padilla family, is a great source of joy and pride for us," said Fr. Marnell Mejia, editor of Cebu’s official archdiocesan publication, the Bag-ong Lungsoranon.

Francisco Padilla was born Sept. 17, 1953 in Cebu City, the 10th of 13 children. After finishing his elementary education at the Colegio de Sto. Niño de Cebu, Padilla entered the Pope John XIII Minor Seminary in Cebu City, and subsequently took up his philosophical studies at the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos.

The prelate then proceeded on to theological studies and earned his Bachelor’s and Licentiate Degrees in Sacred Theology from the University of Santo Tomas Central Seminary in Manila.

In 1985, shortly before joining the Church’s diplomatic service, Archbishop Padilla earned his Doctoral Degree in Sacred Theology and his Licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he was given the highest honor.

Before his appointment as Nuncio, Padilla was last assigned as counselor in the Apostolic Nunciature of Australia.

His older brother became the first Filipino Nuncio in 1990 when the late Pope John Paul II named him as the Apostolic Nuncio to Panama. The second Filipino Nuncio is Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana from Naga City, who is now the Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan.