FORMER Letran Manila rector Fr. Clarence Marquez, O.P. will temporarily take on the rectorship at the UST Central Seminary, succeeding Fr. Quirico Pedregosa Jr., O.P. who had served for 12 years.
Marquez, the seminary’s vice rector since the start of the year, assumed the post of acting rector after Pedregosa reached the end of his third and final term on Dec. 1.
The appointment was confirmed by the UST Central Seminary in a Facebook post.
Marquez is the former rector and president of the Dominican-run Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Marquez served as Dominican regent of studies and director of the UST Institute of Religion from 2004 to 2008, UST vice rector for finance from 2006 to 2007, and acting vice rector of the University from 2007 to 2008.
He obtained his bachelor and doctorate degrees in Sacred Theology at the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties, and his licentiate in Sacred Scriptures at the Pontificium Institutum in Rome.
Marquez was ordained to the priesthood in 1995.
A new seminary rector is expected to be appointed in January 2025 by the Provincial Chapter of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, the Filipino Dominicans’ highest policy-making assembly.
In the same Facebook post, seminarians in the UST Central Seminary bid farewell to Pedregosa, describing him as a “tireless and passionate preacher of love.”
“He modeled for all seminarians fortunate to have undergone his paternal guidance a spirituality that is anchored on love, simplicity, and humility, generously sprinkled with a healthy dose of good humor and fun,” they added.
Pedregosa, a former top official of the worldwide Dominican order and Filipino provincial, was installed in November 2012 as the UST seminary’s 12th Rector, succeeding Fr. Gerard Timoner III, O.P., now the Master of the Order.
