San Fernando, Pampanga Archbishop Florentino Lavarias. (Photo from CBCP Online)
MANILA – The Vatican has named San Fernando, Pampanga Archbishop Florentino Lavarias as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Balanga.
The Balanga diocese has no bishop since July 22, after Bishop Ruperto Santos was officially installed as the new bishop of the Diocese of Antipolo.
He will oversee the diocese until the Vatican named a new bishop of Balanga.
The Diocese of Balanga has been declared as “sede vacante” (Latin for "the seat being vacant"), which refers to the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church in the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Sede vacante" 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, as the new bishop of Antipolo diocese will oversee more than three million Catholics in the diocese with more than 70 parishes comprising Marikina City and the entire province of Rizal.
The installation ceremony was led by Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Charles Brown at the Antipolo Cathedral in Antipolo City, Rizal. (PNA)
