Eastern Samar has new Bishop

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
August 6, 2007

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  At last, after almost one year of not having one, the faithful of Eastern Samar will already have a new bishop.

This development came as Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Fr. Crispin Varquez, Vicar-General of Tagbilaran City, Bohol, as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Borongan in Eastern Samar.

Varquez’ appointment was released in the Vatican Saturday and was announced simultaneously in Manila by the Charge d’ Affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr. Wojciech Zaluski, through the National Office of Mass Media, since the country has been without a nuncio after Archbishop Fernando Filoni’s appointment as Assistant Secretary of State in the Vatican.

With his appointment, Fr. Varquez succeeds Bishop Leonardo Medroso, who was transferred to the Diocese of Tagbilaran City in October, 2006. He will now serve the Diocese of Borongan which has a population of 362,000, some 350,000 of them Catholics.

The newly appointed bishop, Fr. Varquez, was born in Sevilla, Bohol. He studied philosophy at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran, and Theology at the St. Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay City. Ordained to the priesthood at 28, Fr. Varquez took postgraduate studies on Seminary Formation in Cebu City and on family counseling in the Center for Family Ministry at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Fr. Varquez served as formator at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran for four years and then, as Formator at the St Augustine Major Seminary in Tagaytay for over five years.

Before his appointment to the Diocese of Borongan, the 46-year-old Fr. Varquez was the vicar forane of the St Joseph Vicariate and then vicar general of the Diocese of Tagbilaran.