A priest from Lagonoy, Camarines Sur has been appointed by Pope Francis as the new Bishop of Sorsogon.
Fr. Jose Alan Dialogo, who was ordained priest for the Manila archdiocese in 1996, will be replacing Bishop Arturo Bastes, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 last April.
The 57-year-old Dialogo, the CBCP said, finished a degree in psychology at the University of Nueva Caceres here before studying at the Holy Apostles Senior Seminary.
Dialogo’s appointment was made public by Bastes himself during the ordination of three men to the priesthood at the Sorsogon Cathedral on Tuesday morning, the CBCP reported.
Dialogo served as the Director of the Jaime Cardinal Sin Welcome Home, a facility for retired priests of Manila, in the city’s Sampaloc district.
In 1999, he also obtained his Licentiate in Spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. A priest for 23 years, he served as parochial vicar at the San Roque Parish in Mandaluyong in 1996; Vice-Rector at the EDSA Shrine in Ortigas in 2015; and parish priest at the St. John of the Cross Parish in Makati in 2018.
He also served as Dean of Seminarians and Rector at the Holy Apostles Senior Seminary in 1999 and 2003 respectively.
In 2008, he became a member of the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese of Manila.
No date has been announced for the episcopal ordination of Dialogo and his installation as the fifth bishop of Sorsogon.