This column welcomes the appointment of Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, OMI, of South Cotabato  as the Philippines’  newest cardinal.  He is the first Ilocano cardinal, having hailed from Sarrat,  Ilocos Norte.

According to Fr. Ericson Josue, the spiritual director of the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary in Vigan, Quevedo has Edralin blood and is related to the late President Ferdinand Marcos.  He is also the cousin of Angeling Quevedo Valenciano, the late mother of my good friend Ed Valenciano of La Salle-St. Benilde.

 

I had heard Cardinal Quevedo deliver the homily during the last Triduum Mass for the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod last Oct. 20  at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. I was with a group of pilgrims from Adam’s Travel. The homily, it now appears, presaged his appointment by Pope Francis since Santa Maria Maggiore is a papal basilica.

 

New Nueva Segovia head

 

Alaminos Bishop Marlon Peralta, who hails from San Carlos, Pangasinan, is the new archbishop for Nueva Segovia, replacing Archbishop Ernesto Salgado, who has retired.

 

He will be installed on April 2 at the Conversion of St. Paul Cathedral in Vigan.  As the new  archbishop, Peralta will take up the cause of the beatification of Servant of God Alfredo Verzosa,  who was the bishop of Lipa during the apparitions of Our Lady Mediatrix of All Grace to postulant Teresing Castillo in September 1948.

 

Human Rights Commissioner Wilhelm Soriano, also from San Carlos, Pangasinan, recalls that the new archbishop was his classmate at the San Carlos Elementary School where their mothers were both teachers.

Soriano’s mother is Herminia Dabu Soriano, while the archbishop’s mother is Lourdes Mendoza Peralta. Soriano remembers that Peralta went to the minor seminary immediately for high school, while he studied at the San Carlos Rural High School.

 

Rev. Fr. Melvin Castro sent us the information that the Buklod ng Pag-ibig Catholic Community, The Sandigan Foundation, and the Confraternity of Mary Mediatrix of All-Grace will hold a  one-day Marian recollection consisting of talks, Holy Mass, and Blessing of the Sick on Feb. 11, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick.

 

The recollection carries the theme, “To Jesus Through Mary: The Spirituality of Total Consecration to Mary.”

 

It will be held at the Buklod ng Pag-ibig Healing Center, 97 Balete Drive Extension, New Manila, Quezon City, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

 

Recollection facilitator is Fr. Melvin P. Castro. Admission is free. Lunch is available at cost.