CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 27 August) — The new Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro will be installed on Friday, August 28, on the feast of the city’s patron saint, St. Augustine.
Jose Aranaeta Cabantan, former Bishop of Bukidnon, will be installed as Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro by Mindanao’s lone Cardinal, Orlando Quevedo, Archbishop Emeritus of the Archdiocese of Cotabato in rites that will be attended only by a few parishioners and guests.
The ceremony to be officiated at the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral will be attended only by 250 parishioners and guests.
Bishop Jose Cabantan of Malaybalay officiates a Mass at the St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral in Cagayan de Oro City on 7 August 2019. Behind him (left) is Archbishop Antonio Ledesma. Bishop Cabantan is the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, after being appointed by Pope Francis on 23 June 2020. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
Father Der John Faborada, spokesperson of the Archdiocese, said they limited the guest list in accordance with the limitations set by the local Inter-Agency Task Force on physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to show the Church is following the health protocols to the fullest,” Faborada said.
In pre-COVID times, an installation of a Bishop or Archbishop is a grand celebration attended by bishops from all over Mindanao and other parts of the country, the Papal Nuncio, priests, nuns, officials of the local government, representatives from the private sector and parishioners in a church filled beyond its seating capacity.
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, the 63-year-old Cabantan presented to the media his personal coat of arms with a tree and a mountain.
He said the tree and the mountain symbolize the environment and the Lumad (Indigenous Peoples) which would be one of the cornerstones of his ministry.
Cabantan who hails from Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental, is the successor of retired Archbishop Antonio Ledesma who will move to the St. John Theological Seminary in barangay Camaman-an, this city.
Ledesma said he will continue his work on agrarian reform, environment and push for the resumption of peace talks between government and the New People’s Army. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
