LEGAZPI CITY: Pope Francis appointed Bishop Rex Andrew Alarcon of Daet as the fifth Archbishop of Nueva Caceres in Camarines Sur province on Thursday night, Feb. 22, 2024.

The appointment was made public at the Vatican during the celebration of the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

The 53-year-old Alarcon will be succeeding Rolando Tria Tirona, who first served as Archbishop of Caceres in August 2023, the CBCP statement said.

Tirona retired at the age of 77.

Alarcon was born in Daet, the provincial capital of Camarines Norte, on Aug. 6, 1970.

He graduated from the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary in Naga, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Central Seminary in Manila, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Caceres on Nov. 9, 1996.

On Jan. 2, 2019, the Pope appointed Alarcon as the prelate of Daet. He was ordained to the episcopate on March 19 of the same year and formally assumed his new role the following day.

Before becoming a bishop, he headed the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP).

As archbishop of Caceres, Alarcon will oversee the pastoral care of Catholics in Naga City, considered the economic, cultural, educational and religious center of the Bicol Region.

The proclamation of Alarcon as the new prelate of Nueva Caceres coincided with St. John Paul 2nd's visit in Legazpi City to venerated the canonically crowned image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia (Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia), the patroness of Bicolandia.

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