MANILA, Philippines – Pope Francis appointed a Cebuano priest, Father Euginius Cañete, as the new Catholic bishop for the eastern part of Quezon province.
Cañete, 58, is the new bishop of the Diocese of Gumaca, a small diocese of around 902,200 Catholics. The diocese has had no leader after Bishop Victor Ocampo, a Pampanga-born prelate, died at the age of 71 in March 2023.
Cañete is currently coordinator general of the Missionaries of Jesus, a congregation founded in the Philippines in 2002 to help the poor and neglected. He is one of the group’s 41 founding members, according to the news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Born in Liloan, Cebu, on July 8, 1966, the bishop-elect completed his psychology degree at the University of Saint La Salle in Bacolod City. He later studied philosophy and theology at Maryhill School of Theology in Quezon City.
In 2003, he earned a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
Cañete’s diocese, located around 200 kilometers away from Manila, is one of the smallest yet oldest Catholic territories in a country of around 85.65 million Catholics.
The Diocese of Gumaca is known as one of the Catholic Church’s front lines in responding to disasters, such as storms, floods, and landslides.
Under Cañete’s predecessor, the diocese was also outspoken on politics, with Gumaca priests backing presidential candidate Leni Robredo and her running mate, Francis Pangilinan, in the 2022 presidential election. Despite endorsements by Catholic leaders in Gumaca and elsewhere, Robredo and Pangilinan lost to Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte. – Rappler.com
