DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 1 February)—Two Mindanao bishops passed on on Thursday, February 1—Tandag Bishop Emeritus Nereo Odchimar at 10:27 a.m. and Malaybalay Bishop Emeritus Honesto Pacana at 12:33 p.m.
Bishops Nereo Odchimar (left) and Honesto Pacana. Photos from the Facebook pages of the Diocese of Tandag and Philippine Jesuits.
Last month, two Mindanao bishops also passed away, the 57-year old Pagadian Bishop Ronald Lunas on January 2 and the 89-year old Davao Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla on January 6.
Odchimar, 83, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) from 2009 to 2011, passed away at the San Pedro Hospital in Davao City.
The Diocese of Tandag said he had been suffering from diabetes and kidney complications and “died of metabolic encephalopathy due to end-stage renal disease and diabetic nephropathy.”
Pacana, 91, of the Society of Jesus, died at the Maria Reyna-Xavier University Hospital in Cagayan de Oro City. The Diocese of Malaybalay said Bishop Onie, as Pacana was called, “survived prostate cancer but succumbed to heart failure.”
Odchimar was born on October 16, 1940, in Bacuag, Surigao del Norte. He was ordained priest on December 19, 1964 and was appointed as second bishop of the Diocese of Tandag on October 18, 2001. He retired on February 26, 2018.
According to the social media post of the Diocese of Tandag, Odchimar, whose episcopal moto was “Duc in Altum” (Put out into the deep), served the Diocese “with utmost zeal and dedication.”
“He continued to uphold the diocesan stand in protecting the integrity of environment against illegal logging and mining. He extended the work of evangelization by creating mission station, devotional chapel, quasi-parishes and parishes, and conducting pastoral visits reaching the far-flung areas of the diocese,” it said.
Bishop Nereo Odchimar tells MindaNews after the Senate public hearing on Lumad killings in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur on October 2, 2015 that he is still waiting for answers to critical questions about the “apparent unholy alliance between the military and the paramilitary which the military vehemently denies.” MindaNews photo by H. MARCOS C. MORDENO
Odchimar “also commenced to put in place the financial management system of the diocese and also initiated to build the new San Nicolas de Tolentino Cathedral.”
In its social media post, the Diocese of Malaybalay said that since 2010, Bishop Pacana lived at his requested retirement home which he called “Payag” (hut) near the St. John XXIII College Seminary in Malaybalay City but moved to the Missionary Congregation of Mary Central House at Impalambong, in the same city, in October 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic “for facility in monitoring his health especially in times of emergencies.”
Bishop Pacana was born on January 22, 1933 in Barangay Kauswagan, Cagayan de Oro City, the youngest of seven children of Vicente Pacana and Felisa Chaves.
He entered the Society of Jesus in 1951, after finishing High School at Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan). He took his bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology at the Woodstock College in Maryland, USA from 1962 to 1966 and MA in Religious Education at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. from 1966 to 1969.
He was ordained priest at the Fordham University Chapel in Bronx, New York and took his final vows at the chapel of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City on April 22, 1978.
Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Malaybalay
Pacana was the founding Director of the Bukidnon Institute of Catechetics, Assistant Formator of the Missionary Congregation of Mary and taught at San Isidro College from 1970 to 1976. He held various positions in the Bukidnon Mission District of the Society of Jesus and in the Diocese of Malaybalay.
He was assigned as Rector of the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro City from 1991 until St. John Paul II appointed him as the third Bishop of the Diocese of Malaybalay on January 12, 1994.
Pacana served as chair of the Episcopal Commission on Culture and member of the CBCP’s Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education.
He retired on February 18, 2010 and published five books featuring his homilies and reflections. He was preparing his sixth book—his memoirs.
Bishop Pacana’s episcopal motto was “Dominus Fortitudo Mea” (The Lord is My Strength).
Lunas died in a Davao City hospital on January 2 from complications after a heart bypass operation in late December. Capalla died in his retirement home at the College Seminary Compound here.
Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles said that after his confinement at the San Pedro Hospital during the holidays, Capalla gave instructions not to be brought back to the hospital anymore because “I am ready to go.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
