Capiz Archbishop Jose Advincula (Photo from Reupert Manuel Garcia/ Facebook)
Pope Francis has appointed the ninth cardinal from the Philippines, Capiz Archbishop Jose Advincula.
Advincula, along with 12 other new cardinals, will be elevated in a consistory on Nov. 28, the pope said during his Oct. 25 (PH time) Angelus at the Vatican.
In a CBCP News report, Advincula said the appointment came to him as a surprise.
“I don’t want to believe it because I have not heard anything, even small talks, there is none,” Advincula told the news organization. “And my first reaction was maybe they had an error in communication.”
Advincula joins cardinals Orlando Quevedo, Luis Antonio Tagle, Gaudencio Rosales, Jose Sanchez, Ricardo Vidal, Jaime Sin, Julio Rosales and Rufino Santos in the short list of Filipinos who have been promoted to cardinal.
Advincula and Tagle, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will be eligible to join a conclave to elect the next pope.
The cardinal-elect was named Capiz archbishop in January 2012.
He serves as vice-chairman of the Committee on International Eucharistic Congress and the Office on Women of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. John Ezekiel J. Hirro