FR. GERARD Francisco Timoner III, O.P. has been elected Master of the Order of Preachers during the order’s General Chapter in Vietnam on Saturday.
The 88th Master of the Order succeeds Fr. Bruno Cadoré, O.P. who led the Dominican Order since 2010.
Timoner, the first Asian to be elected to the post, will serve as the worldwide head of the Order of Preachers until 2028.
In his first address as the Master of the Order, Timoner reminded his fellow Dominicans of their identity as preachers of the Gospel.
“Mission is not what we do. Mission is who we are. And if that is very clear, then everything will just follow,” he said. “Action follows being. [W]e are invited to really look not at ourselves but at the Church that we are supposed to serve and to build.”
He added: “We are preachers even if we are doing serious research alone in our rooms. We are preachers even when we are helping the less privileged. That is our identity.”
Timoner served as prior provincial of the Dominican Province in the Philippines from 2012 to 2016.
In 2017, he was appointed by Cadoré as the socius for Asia-Pacific of the Order of Preachers.
Timoner was also appointed by Pope Francis as a member of the International Theological Commission in 2014, the fourth Filipino to hold the position.
Born in Daet, Camarines Norte on Jan. 26, 1968, he joined the Dominican Order as an aspirant in 1985. He professed in 1989 and was ordained priest in 1995.
He obtained his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Philippine Dominican Center of International Studies in 1991 and finished his bachelor’s degree in theology in UST in 1994.
He obtained his licentiate in sacred theology and master’s in intercultural theology from the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen in Netherlands in 2004.
Timoner served as the 11th rector of the UST Central Seminary, from 2007 to 2012.
He was also previously UST vice rector for religous affairs and regent of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
Dominican spirituality is founded on its four pillars, prayer, common life, study and preaching.
