THE THOMASIAN Bishop-Prelate of Batanes celebrated his silver episcopal ordination anniversary with a Thanksgiving Mass at the Santisimo Rosario Parish last April 16.
In a message last February, Pope Benedict XVI described Bishop Camilo Gregorio as “relentless” in his “pastoral zeal for the spiritual growth of the faithful and skilled in explaining the teaching of the Church Magisterium.”
Gregorio has served as a priest for 48 years since 1963. The bishop marked his episcopal anniversary last March 29.
He graduated with a degree in Sacred Theology from UST and obtained his doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas in Rome (Angelicum). He finished a master’s degree in educational administration at Fordham University in New York.
Upon his return to the Philippines, Gregorio was named rector of the Maria Assumpta Seminary in Cabanatuan from 1971 to 1974.
He became assistant secretary in the Apostolic Nunciature, the papal embassy in Manila, in 1984.
Pope John Paul II named him titular bishop of Girense and auxiliary bishop of Cebu in 1987. Two years later, he became the bishop of Bacolod. He resigned in 2000. In 2003, he was appointed by the Holy See as moderator of the prelature of Batanes.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude to Gregorio for his faithful response to God in the service of the Church.
“We pray that these coming years of service as a bishop may be the best music that he will offer to God and to us,” Tagle said after the mass, which was attended by some 50 priests and bishops including former Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, Santisimo Rosario Parish Priest Fr. Franklin Beltran, O.P., and Fr. Gerald Timoner III, O.P. the new prior provincial of the Dominican Province of the Philippines and University vice chancellor. B. D. Nicolas
