Pope Francis names new Palawan bishop

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=12&rid=935823
• Saturday, October 29, 2016

(PNA), RMA/FGP/SSC

MANILA, Oct. 29 (PNA) -- Pope Francis has named the seventh bishop of the Palawan vicariate since its establishment in 1910.

The appointment of Fr. Socrates Mesiona as the new bishop of Puerto Princesa was announced at 12 noon (6 pm, Manila time) on Friday at Vatican, according to an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He replaced 77-year old Bishop Pedro Arigo after the Vatican accepted his resignation. The retired prelate served in the diocese for 20 years.

Mesiona, a known missiologist, is currently the executive secretary of the bishops’ Commission on Mission and national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in the Philippines.

The bishop-elect was born in Tagbilaran City, Bohol on Sept. 17, 1963.

After his secondary school studies, he studied Philosophy at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Bohol and Theology at the Divine Word School of Theology in Tagaytay City.

He was ordained a priest on April 14, 1989 as a member of the Mission Society of the Philippines, where he also served as its former Superior General.

The new Palawan prelate obtained a Licentiate in Missiology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1996.

Mesiona had also served as Rector of the Mission Society of the Philippines in Tagaytay City and parish priest of the Our Lady of the Abandoned in Mandaluyong City.

He is also a member of the International Association of Catholic Missiologists (IACM).