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Cardinal José Fuerte Advincula de Capiz has been appointed the new Archbishop of Manila.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis on Thursday appointed a new archbishop in the Archdiocese of Manila, in the Philippine capital. He transferred Cardinal José Fuerte Advincula from Capiz to succeed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, whom the Pope had appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican on December 8, 2019. The Manila See has been vacant for more than 15 months. during which Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo has been serving as Apostolic Administrator.
Cardinal José Fuerte Advincula was born on March 30, 1952 in Dumalag, Capiz, in the Western Visayas region. After completing his primary studies at Dumalag, he entered the Pius X Seminary High School in Roxas City, where he also did his philosophical studies. Later he attended theology courses at the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomás in Manila.
After his priestly ordination on April 14, 1979, he was appointed Spiritual Director, as well as professor and dean of studies at the Saint Pius X Seminary. Later he began his studies in psychology at De La Salle University in Manila and in Canon Law, both at the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in Manila and at the Pontifical University of San Tommaso d’Aquino-Angelicum in Rome, Italy, obtaining a degree in Canon Law.
Back in the Philippines, he served at the seminary in Vigan, Nueva Segovia and at the regional seminary in Jaro. In 1995 he was appointed Rector of the Seminario San Pío X de Capiz, and also served as Defender of the Bond, Promoter of Justice and Judicial Vicar in the same archdiocese. In 1999 he was appointed parish priest of Santo Tomás de Villanueva a Dao.
Saint John Paul II appointed him bishop of San Carlos on July 25, 2001, and he was consecrated bishop on September 8. After 10 years, Pope Benedict XVI transferred him to his native Archdiocese of Capiz as archbishop on November 9, 2011.
Pope Francis named him cardinal in the consistory of November 28, 2020.
With 3 million Catholics in more than 80 parishes, Manila is the largest archdiocese in the Philippines. The Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province of Manila includes 9 suffragan dioceses. On February 6, the Archdiocese of Manila celebrated 442 years as a diocese. It was erected on February 6, 1579 as a suffragan diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Mexico, encompassing the colonies of Spain in Asia.
