Archbishop Julius Tonel vows to listen to the people as he prepares for his new assignment in the southern Philippine archdiocese of Zamboanga.
A day after his appointment was announced by the Vatican, the prelate was still in “disbelief” with his new ministry even as he said “the mission must go on.”
He said the challenge for him remains the same, that is, how to bring the Gospel closer to the people in the best way possible.
“So I will do a lot of listening,” said Bishop Tonel, adding that it’s the best way he can to serve the people.
He said his ministry approach is to meet people where they are — in their life and in their discernment.
“I have to work with all of these and everything that I will do has to be rooted in the Gospel,” he added.
On April 25, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Tonel, until now the bishop of the Diocese of Ipil, as the new archbishop of Zamboanga.
He will replace the late Archbishop Romulo de la Cruz, who served the post from May 2014 until his death from illness in December 2021.
Auxiliary Bishop Moises Cuevas has been overseeing the archdiocese as apostolic administrator.
Addressing the clergy and the faithful on Tuesday evening, he asked them to pray for their new archbishop “as he begins his new ministry among us.”
“May the Holy Spirit guide and strengthen him as he leads us on the path of faith and spiritual growth,” Bishop Cuevas said.
“And may God bless our new archbishop and our local Church of Zamboanga. May we continue to grow in faith, hope and love under his spiritual guidance,” he added.
Bishop Tonel, who is turning 67 on August 31, has been the bishop of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay province since 2007.
The archdiocese has yet to announce the date of Bishop Tonel’s canonical installation as Zamboanga archbishop.
Born on Aug. 31, 1956, in Davao City, Bishop Tonel studied Philosophy at the San Francis Xavier Regional Major Seminary of Mindanao (SFX-REMASE) and Theology at the University of Santo Tomas Central Seminary in Manila.
He was ordained priest on April 12, 1980, for the Archdiocese of Davao where he served as its vicar general and rector of SFX-REMASE.
The archbishop-elect also holds a licentiate degree in Liturgical Theology from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Liturgy in Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed him prelate of the then-Prelature of Ipil on June 30, 2007. He was ordained to the episcopate on August 20 of the same year.
When the prelature was elevated to a diocese on May 1, 2010, Bishop Tonel became its first bishop.
Zamboanga is one of the country’s 16 archdioceses, and the first of the four in Mindanao, including Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and Cotabato.
In 1910, Zamboanga became a separate diocese from Cebu, becoming the mother diocese of the Catholic Church in the southern Philippines.
The archdiocese also has as its suffragans — Diocese of Ipil, the Apostolic Vicariate of Jolo, and the Prelature of Isabela de Basilan. – with a report from CBCP News
