MSGR. FRANCIS DE LEON named
new auxiliary bishop of Antipolo

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Msgr. Francisco M. De Leon as the Auxiliary Bishop of Antipolo, to assist Bishop Gabriel Reyes. Monsignor De Leon is the Rector of the Divine Mercy Shrine in Mandaluyong City.

The news was officially published in the Vatican on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 12 noon, Roman time. It was released simultaneously in Manila by Archbishop Fernando Filoni, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines.

Msgr. De Leon, 60, was born on June 11, 1947 in Parañaque City. He studied elementary at Saint Andrew’s School in Parañaque. He graduated school at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary, and Philosophy and Theology at San Carlos Seminary. He was ordained on June 28, 1975 at the Manila Cathedral.

He went on to higher studies at De La Salle University, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling, and a second Master’s Degree in Education Management. He took a course in Spiritual Renewal at Our Lady of New Clairvaux in Vina, California, and a Pastoral Course at the Vatican II Institute for Clergy Formation in Menio Park, California.

He was appointed Dean of Studies and Prefect of Discipline at San Carlos Seminary, Rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary, and then Rector of San Carlos Seminary. For nine years he was the Spiritual Director of the Mother Butler Mission Guild, and the Rector of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy in Mandaluyong.

This will probably be the last creation of a new Filipino Bishop while Archbishop Filoni is the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines. Archbishop Filoni is scheduled to leave the Philippines for its new post as Deputy Secretary of State in the Vatican, on July 8.

No date has been set for the Episcopal Ordination of Msgr. De Leon, or for his installation as the Auxiliary Bishop of Antipolo.