Filipino missionary priest Fr. Reynaldo Getalado was ordained coadjutor bishop of Rarotonga in the Pacific island nation of Cook Islands on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As coadjutor bishop, Getalado would automatically succeed Bishop Paul Donoghue after Pope Francis accepts his resignation.

In January, Donoghue, a New Zealander, turned 75, the mandatory retirement age for bishops.

Donogue himself served as the ordaining prelate in a ceremony held at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Avarua, located in the north of the island.

The ordination was witnessed by more than 20 priests and four prelates, including Filipino Bishop Ryan Jimenez of the Saipan diocese of Chalan Kanoa, and hundreds of faithful.

Jimenez is also the new president of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific, which is comprised of 17 ecclesial territories.

Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, the apostolic nuncio to Aotearoa New Zealand, was not present, but represented by his charge d’affaires, Fr. Joshua Bosgti.

Rugambwa suffered a stroke in October and has been recovering and undergoing rehabilitation since then.

Ordained priest for the Mission Society of the Philippines in 1988, Getalado had served in various locations throughout his ministry, including Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand.

He had been serving as a missionary to the Mission Sui Iuris of Funafuti, the capital island nation of Tuvalu, when Pope Francis appointed him as coadjutor bishop in December 2023.