Church’s social action arm raises concerns over Pax Silica hub

Saturday, August 8, 2026

Church’s social action arm raises concerns over Pax Silica hub

Posted by Herbert Curia - Promoter at Saturday, August 08, 2026 0 comments

From the Website of CBCP
From: https://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/new-calapan-diocese-marks-beginning-of-greater-mission-nuncio-says/

New Calapan diocese marks beginning of greater mission, nuncio says

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro — The Vatican’s ambassador to the Philippines said Friday that Calapan’s elevation to a diocese marks the start of a greater mission, urging Catholics to match the Church’s new status with lives of faithful witness.

Archbishop Charles Brown said the milestone will have lasting meaning only if Catholics continue living their faith through authentic Christian witness.

“This uninterrupted history of expansion and growth will continue if we, you and I, are true witnesses to our faith,” Brown said during a Mass at Sto. Niño Cathedral marking the canonical establishment of the Diocese of Calapan from the Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan.

The Mass also marked the installation of Bishop Moises Cuevas as the first bishop of Calapan, after nearly three years as apostolic vicar.

In his homily, Cuevas said the new status is not cause for self-congratulation but a call to embrace a larger missionary task.

Becoming a diocese is not about pride, he said. “It means a greater mission.”

Cuevas said the diocese has inherited the faith and sacrifices of generations who built the local Church.

“We have now fully inherited this mission,” he said. “We have inherited the sacrifices of the missionaries, the hard work of the catechists, the prayers of our grandparents, and the resilience and humility of the Mangyan people.”

“We have become a diocese so that we may further expand Christ’s mission,” he added.

Bishop Moises Cuevas is installed as the first bishop of Calapan during a Mass formally elevating the apostolic vicariate to a diocese, at Sto. Niño Cathedral in Calapan City, Aug. 7, 2026. ROY LAGARDE

Archbishop Gilbert Garcera, metropolitan archbishop of Lipa and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, called the new diocese “a unique grace” that reflects God’s enduring faithfulness to the people of Oriental Mindoro.

He said the diocese begins its mission at a significant moment as the Philippine church continues embracing synodality.

“The vision, mission and pastoral direction you have discerned together clearly reflect the marks of a synodal Church — a Church living in communion, strengthened by participation and sent on mission,” Garcera said.

He prayed the Diocese of Calapan would become “a source of communion, a bridge of reconciliation, and a community of missionary disciples bringing hope to our time.”

Brown said the Church’s future depends less on its new ecclesiastical structure than on believers whose daily lives reflect the Gospel.

“We need in our own lives to be witnesses to the truth of Christ, witnesses to what we have seen and heard, witnesses to the grace that we’ve received in the Holy Eucharist,” he said.

“If people look at us and look at our actions and say the only way to understand the way that person lives is that person must have faith,” Brown added, “then the faith will continue here in Oriental Mindoro.”

Brown traced the church’s missionary roots in Mindoro to the arrival of Augustinian Recollect and Franciscan missionaries in the 16th century, and thanked the Society of the Divine Word missionaries for nearly a century of evangelization that laid the groundwork for the local Church’s new chapter.

Pope Pius XI established the Apostolic Prefecture of Mindoro in 1936. Pope Pius XII elevated it to the Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan in 1951. Pope Leo XIV raised it to a diocese in a decree dated March 25, marking a new stage in the growth of the local Church.