POPE LEO XIV on Thursday appointed Kabankalan Bishop Louie Galbines the new head of the Diocese of Bacolod, according to the news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Galbines, an alumnus of the UST Central Seminary, will lead the over 1.6 million Catholics in the Bacolod diocese, where he was ordained as a priest.
Galbines, 59, will replace Bishop Patricio Buzon, also a Thomasian, who retired after reaching the mandatory retirement age for bishops of 75.
Born in Sagay, Negros Occidental, the Bacolod bishop-elect finished his philosophical and theological studies at the University.
Galbines was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Bacolod on April 29, 1994.
He studied at the Dominican-run Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, earning his licentiate and doctorate degrees in sacred theology between 1997 and 2001.
Upon returning, he served as rector of the Sacred Heart Seminary in Bacolod and vicar general of the diocese.
Pope Francis appointed him bishop of the Diocese of Kabankalan on March 12, 2018, succeeding Buzon.
He was consecrated to the episcopate on May 28, 2019, and served as the third bishop of Kabankalan, leading the see for seven years.
