Pope appoints new head of Nueva Ecija diocese
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Fr. Samuel Agcaracar as the fifth bishop of the diocese of San Jose de Nueva Ecija.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ CBCP News reported on Friday that the new bishop will succeed Bishop Roberto Mallari, who now heads the Diocese of Tarlac.
Before the appointment of the 55-year-old Agcaracar from the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD) congregation, the position had been vacant for nearly eight months.
First a teacher
The bishop-elect is the current rector of the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City, and provincial admonitor of the SVD Philippine Central Province.
Born in Claveria, Cagayan, Agcaracar was first a teacher while serving as a catechist in his home parish of St. Joseph.
He later entered the Society of the Divine Word Seminary and studied philosophy at the Christ the King Seminary in Quezon City, and theology at the Divine Word School of Theology in Tagaytay.
Ordained in 2007, Agcaracar served as a high school director at the Divine Word College of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro.
He holds a doctorate in missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He is also the founder and executive director of the SVD Laudato Si’ Farm in Tagaytay.
The date for his episcopal ordination and installation has yet to be set.
Nueva Ecija has two dioceses–Cabanatuan and San Jose–which oversee parishes in the northern part of the province.
