Caceres Archbishop Rex Andrew Alarcon (Photo courtesy of CBCP News)
MANILA – Pope Francis has appointed a new archbishop of Caceres.
Bishop Rex Andrew Alarcon, 53, was named as the new head of the archdiocese based on an order from the Vatican released on Thursday night.
He will oversee the pastoral care of Catholics in Naga City, considered the economic, cultural, educational, and religious center of the Bicol region.
Alarcon, currently serving as Daet bishop, will succeed Archbishop Rolando Tria Tirona, who retired at the age of 77 and led the archdiocese since November 2012.
Alarcon was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Caceres on Nov. 9, 1996. He holds a licentiate in Church history, which he from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2001.
He was born in Daet, the provincial capital of Camarines Norte, on Aug. 6, 1970.
He completed his secondary education and philosophy courses at the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary in Naga and studied theology at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Central Seminary in Manila.
On Jan. 2, 2019, the Pope appointed Alarcon as the bishop of Daet. He was ordained to the episcopate on March 19 and formally assumed his new role the following day.
Before becoming a bishop, the newly appointed archbishop led the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools and served as the president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP).
Alarcon is currently the chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Youth of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
The suffragan dioceses of the Caceres archdiocese include Daet, Legazpi, Libmanan, Masbate, Sorsogon and Virac. (PNA)
