'SEDE VACANTE'. The Diocese of Balanga has been declared "sede vacante" (seat being vacant) following the installation of its former head, Bishop Ruperto Santos, to the Diocese of Antipolo in Rizal. Santos served the Diocese of Balanga in Bataan for 13 years. (Image courtesy of Diocese of Balanga)
MANILA – The Diocese of Balanga in Bataan has been declared "sede vacante” following the appointment of its former head, Bishop Ruperto Santos, as the new Bishop of Antipolo.
Santos was officially installed Saturday morning at the Antipolo Cathedral in Rizal province.
The Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles Brown led the ceremony.
“With the canonical possession of the Diocese of Antipolo by Most Rev. Ruperto C. Santos, DD today, sitting at his cathedral in the Antipolo Cathedral at exactly 10:35 a.m.,” the Balanga diocese in a social media post on Saturday.
Santos served the Diocese of Bataan for 13 years.
“On this occasion, the Diocese of Balanga is officially in the status of sede vacante. We thank the Lord for the gift of Bishop Santos; for the thirteen years of shepherding the Bataan Peninsula,” it said.
It also expressed hope that the new bishop of Bataan would be named soon.
“We pray and ask the Lord to send his shepherd for the Diocese of Balanga soon,” it said.
"Sede vacante," the Latin phrase for the seat being vacant, refers to the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church in the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church.
It occurs when the diocesan bishop has either died, resigned, transferred to a different diocese, or lost his office and a replacement has not yet been named.
Santos will oversee more than three million Catholics in the diocese of Antipolo, with more than 70 parishes comprising Marikina City and the entire province of Rizal. (PNA)
