Cardinal Vidal?s successor to take over in new year | Sun.Star Network Online
Cardinal Vidal’s successor to take over in new year
By
Bernadette A. Parco
Saturday, October 16, 2010
THE Archdiocese of Cebu will welcome a new archbishop next year.
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Jose S. Palma, 60, who is currently archbishop of Palo in the province of Leyte.
“The announcement was made at 6 p.m. (last night),” said Msgr. Achilles Dakay, Archdiocesan media liaison officer.
The handover will take place after three months, and Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal will stay on as apostolic administrator until Archbishop Palma’s installation.
Cardinal Vidal, said Dakay, took a phone call early last night, probably from Vatican City in Rome.
Dakay said it was Cardinal Vidal himself who told him of the news.
“At least, we know him,” Dakay quoted the cardinal as saying. “He (Archbishop Palma) was with us as auxiliary bishop in 1997 up to 1999.”
Cardinal Vidal, a native of Mogpog in Marinduque Province, was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Cebu on April 13, 1981 and succeeded Julio Cardinal Rosales as archbishop of Cebu on Aug. 24, 1982.
He was elevated to cardinal on May 25, 1985 and joined the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
He submitted his resignation letter to Pope Benedict XVI through then Apostolic Nuncio Antonio Franco in February 2006.
According to the Canon Law or the rules and regulations followed by the Catholic Church, the mandatory age for retirement for bishops is 75 years old.
The extension of his stay as Cebu archbishop was announced at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral on the 50th sacerdotal anniversary of Vidal.
There will be a procedure for the succession and a committee will be organized to facilitate the transition that is expected to take place by January next year.
Dakay explained that each bishop nominated three of their brother bishops and submitted these to the Papal Nuncio.
“The Nuncio then sent these to the Pope,” he said.
Msgr. Dakay said Palma was born on March 19, 1950 in Dingle, Iloilo province. He was ordained a priest on Aug. 21, 1976 while his ordination as bishop was conducted at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral on Jan. 13, 1998.
Palma was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cebu in November 1997 and he stayed until he was appointed Bishop of Calbayog diocese in Samar Province by January 1999.
According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website, Palma studied at the Calicuang Elementary School and spent his high school and pre-college years in Dingle town.
His studied philosophy at the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary and Theology at the St. Joseph Regional Seminary.
He was accorded Magna Cum Laude honors after he finished his Licentiate in Theology at the University of Sto. Tomas Central Seminary and Doctorate in Theology in Rome at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 16, 2010.
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