The Archdiocese of Jaro welcomed its new archbishop after the formal installation of Most Rev. Midyphil Billones during the solemn High Mass with the rite of canonical possession at the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral on Wednesday, April 2.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, for whom Billones previously served as Auxiliary Bishop, emphasized the sacred duty entrusted to the new Jaro archbishop.

“He has placed you here not because you are a deserving son of Jaro, certainly the most suitable for the ministry, as we say taga-Jaro gid (truly from Jaro). But simply because the Lord has chosen you to be the vicar of His love especially, to the last, the least, and the lost,” Palma said.

The celebration began with a solemn canonical procession from the Archbishop’s Residence to the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

Leading the procession was Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, Most Rev. Charles John Brown, alongside 47 bishops and archbishops from across the country, joined by hundreds of priests.

In his message, Billones conveyed his deep gratitude to those who helped him grow in his ministry, including Palma and his predecessor, Archbishop-emeritus Jose Romeo Lazo.

“This installation is a beautiful flowering of your years of priestly ministry. And I only hope, even though imperfectly, I can extend the legacy of your humble sandals and the blooming staff that walks to the side of the people,” he said.

He also thanked the priests in Jaro, who were once his mentors and now his fellow clergy.

“I am fully aware of my weaknesses. It’s just that I know yours, too. This would keep us humble and more compassionate to one another as we burn bright with the ecclesiological awareness that it is God’s mercy that urges us to be united in loving and serving the church,” he added.

Brown called the celebration a “highly significant day” as it coincided with the feast of St. Pedro Calungsod, a Visayan saint.

Billones is the 14th shepherd of Jaro since the diocese was founded in May 1865 and the seventh archbishop after it was elevated to the status of an archdiocese in the 1950s, he said.

“As the Apostolic Nuncio, I ask you, I beg you, cherish your archbishop, respect your archbishop, pray for your archbishop, and love your archbishop because he is God’s gift to you as your episcopus, the one who watches over his beautiful caravan of God,” Brown told the Ilonggo faithful.

Billones succeeded Lazo who retired after celebrating his 50th year as a priest and serving Jaro as archbishop for seven years.

Born on July 4, 1969 in Panay, Capiz, Billones was ordained priest by then Archbishop Alberto Piamonte at the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral on Oct. 2, 1995, and as bishop by Lazo in the same church on Aug. 27, 2019.Perla Lena/PNA