MANILA, Philippines – Pope Francis named Marcelino Antonio Maralit Jr. as the Catholic bishop in charge of Laguna, moving him out of Marinduque after nearly a decade of leadership.
Maralit, 55, is the new bishop of the Diocese of San Pablo, which covers the entire Laguna province, after a year of vacancy. Laguna has had no bishop — only a caretaker in the person of Pasig Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara — following the resignation of Bishop Buenaventura Famadico, 68, due to health reasons in September 2023.
Laguna, a historic province whose borders are around an hour’s drive from Metro Manila, is composed of around 3 million Catholics. It has a bigger Catholic population than the Archdiocese of Manila, which is composed of around 2.6 million Catholics from the cities of Makati, Mandaluyong, Manila, Pasay, and San Juan.
Maralit had been bishop of the Diocese of Boac, which is composed of the entire province of Marinduque, since March 2015. Marinduque, an island province around 162 kilometers south of Manila, has around 256,600 Catholics.
It is now the Diocese of Boac that will have to wait for a new Catholic bishop.
Born in Manila on May 18, 1969, the San Pablo bishop-elect was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Lipa in Batangas on March 13, 1995.
He studied philosophy at Saint Francis de Sales Major Seminary in Lipa City, Batangas, and theology at the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. He later earned a licentiate in church history from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
At the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), he currently heads the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications and also belongs to the Episcopal Commission for Youth.
As chair of the CBCP Episcopal Commission for Social Communications, Maralit recently encouraged Catholic communicators to stay firm in their mission — a call to holiness — in the face of online negativity.
“In the midst and in front of bashers, trolls, creators’ block, and other realities that seem to be negative,” said Maralit, “we must not be deterred from our mission.”
A sinful past
Seven years ago, at the 4th World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (WACOM) in Batangas, Maralit took the courageous move of sharing his conversion story from a sinful life in his earlier years as a priest. It was rare for a bishop to do this in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country where priestly misdemeanors are either covered up or shrouded in secrecy.
At WACOM, Maralit recalled his past life as a “mediocre priest,” pointing out that “mediocrity is, by itself, the first step toward sinfulness.”
“I became very materialistic, wanting the best this world can offer and not thinking twice about how I spent my money or my parents’ money. I loved being with girls and enjoyed their company so much, and eventually, I entered into wrong and sinful relationships,” he said.
“To support the things I enjoyed,” he added, “I also became a priest-businessman of sorts. I knew I had to have more money to keep on enjoying the pleasures of this world. And little by little, I was living a double life.”
His life changed, however, after a mother came to the seminary to seek his help for her 10-year-old son who had leukemia. Moved by the mother’s request, he promised to shoulder the boy’s cancer treatment.
“I was becoming a little bit wiser on how I was spending my money because I knew I had hospital bills to pay,” he said.
Later, he was exposed to other children with cancer who needed his help.
“I knew I was the one who needed the healing,” he said.
“I really thought at first that for me to help them, I needed a lot of money. But the truth is, I discovered, money was not what we really needed. What was really needed was for me to first become the priest that Christ wanted me to become. And when I did start becoming one, in spite of my broken and sinful past, the real miracles started to happen,” he said.
When the Pope eventually named him bishop of Boac nearly a decade ago, Maralit said he was hesitant to accept the appointment at first, ashamed of his sinful past.
Maralit changed his mind, however, after consulting with his close friend Imus Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista, his predecessor as bishop of Boac.
Evangelista said Maralit’s experience of remembering his sins “was even more reason” for him to accept the appointment.
“He explained it by saying that for him, the experience of seeing so many of my faults was a sign that God wanted me to see that I was not going to be a bishop because of my talents, my abilities, or my qualities, but rather, only because of the wisdom and goodness of God’s will and mercy,” Maralit recalled.
“I am very, very sure,” he said, “I am a priest and a bishop only because of God’s mercy and love.” – Rappler.com
