Vatican creates a new diocese in Mindanao

Photo from the Facebook page of the Archdiocese of Cebu

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 15 October) – Mindanao has a new diocese, the Diocese of Prosperidad in Agusan del Sur, cbcbpnews.net reported Tuesday.

The report said the Vatican announced on the same day that Pope Francis has established the new diocese and appointed its first bishop, Ruben Labajo, who until now is auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Cebu.

Until Tuesday’s announcement from the Vatican, Agusan del Sur was part of the 57-year-old Diocese of Butuan, which now only covers Agusan del Norte.

“The pope’s decision to split the Butuan diocese into two stemmed from a petition filed by Bishop Cosme Damian Almedilla of Butuan in 2023,” the cbcpnews report said.

Prosperidad is the capital town of Agusan del Sur, a landlocked, mountainous province in Caraga region.

“Prosperidad will be the country’s 87th diocese and will be a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro,” the cbcpnews report noted.

“The diocese has a population of nearly 800,000, of whom around 486,000 are Catholics spread across 26 parishes, 1 quasi-parish, and 3 mission stations. It also has 32 diocesan priests, 29 religious priests, and 6 sisters,” it added.

Labajo, 58, was ordained priest for the Cebu archdiocese on June 10, 1994, and appointed in June 2022 as auxiliary bishop of Cebu. He was ordained to the episcopate on Aug. 19, 2022. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)