The country’s newest bishop, Pablito Tagura, will be ordained to the episcopate on Feb. 17, five days before Ash Wednesday.

The bishop-elect for the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose in Occidental Mindoro province will be consecrated bishop by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization.

Apostolic vicariates and prelatures are part of the mission territories Cardinal Tagle’s dicastery oversees.

Several bishops, priests, consecrated persons, and laypeople are expected at the episcopal ordination to be held at Christ the King Mission Seminary (CKMS) in Quezon City.

Pope Francis last December appointed the priest of the Society of Divine Word as the third bishop of the vicariate, with a population of around half-a-million, about 75 percent of which are Catholics.

“It was unexpected but I’m blessed. It’s a grace from God that I’m given the chance to serve the vicariate,” Tagura said.

“It would be a different ministry for me because, for more than 28 years, I have been teaching in the seminary,” added the outgoing Rector of CKMS.

Tagura will be formally installed in his ecclesiastical office by Archbishop Charles Brown, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, on February 25.

The vicariate has been without a bishop since March 2018 after the resignation of Bishop Antonio Palang, who died three years later.