Father Soc marks 15th year as archbishop
LINGAYEN-DAGUPAN ARCHDIOCESE
ARCHBISHOP Socrates Villegas marked his 15th year in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan with a Pastoral Letter read in churches on November 3, where he highlighted how this period in his vocation has been “a pilgrimage of crystallizing visions and purposes and goals and dreams.
“I have hurt and been hurt and I have become humbler and hopefully stronger through them. The crystallization of my vocation as a bishop needed me to allow my illusions and delusions to evaporate as thin air that I may cling only to God my rock and foundation,” wrote the Catholic leader who prefers to be called simply as Father Soc.
It was on November 4, 2009, when Villegas was installed by Rev. Charles Brown, papal nuncio to the Philippines, at the St. John the Evangelist Cathedral as archbishop of the Lingayen-Dagupan, replacing then Archbishop Oscar Cruz who retired.
“As I look back with gratitude without any regrets at the past fifteen years of my vocation as your pastor, the Word of God continues to be the light for my path,” he said.
The diocese has about 1.2 million parishioners, 130 diocesan and religious priests, 15 communities of men and women in consecrated life, 151 seminarians in three seminaries, and 17 Catholic schools.
“As I age, hearing can require more effort. In the twilight years, hurts and aches in soul and body can be easy excuses for loving less. It should not be. It need not be. I beg you to pray for me that like crystal, my listening and my loving may be clearer and firmer and stronger,” he concluded. (Leonardo Micua)
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