Archbishop Jose Cabantan was formally installed as the fifth archbishop of Cagayan de Oro in a ceremony held at the St. Augustine Cathedral Friday.
The ceremony, which included the rite of imposition of pallium conferred by former Cotabato archbishop Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, happened two months after his appointment to the post.
Pope Francis appointed Cabantan on June 23 to lead the southern Philippine archdiocese with more than a million Catholics in 62 parishes.
He replaced Jesuit Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, who served the archdiocese for 14 years until his retirement two months ago.
With his installation happening amid a public health crisis due to the coronavirus disease 2019, Cabantan reminded the flock “to confront the unseen enemy” with “hope and care for one another.”
He said his appointment during a health crisis “calls us to rise as one, to survive as one, to live in solidarity, to strengthen our communion with one another and with God above all.”
“This pandemic allows us to shape once again the kind of church we should be,” CBCP News quoted the 63-year-old Cabantan.
By calling the church a “field hospital,” the former Malaybalay bishop said that Pope Francis calls a radical rethinking of ecclesial life.
“Like the field hospitals which are built to be able to treat more of our infected brothers and sisters, the church then should not just stay at the center of the parish but to be in the field,” Cabantan said.
“This the church in the midst of people, a church that goes forth, a church always in mission. To infect our brothers and sisters with love and mercy of God is our common mission,” he added.
Cabantan was ordained a priest in 1990. He was appointed bishop of Malaybalay in 2010.