LEGAZPI City – RETIRED Bishop Nestor Cariño, who served in at least three dioceses and was a former secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), died Saturday at age 86.
The Diocese of Legazpi confirmed his death in a statement, saying Cariño passed away at 11:15 a.m. at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City.
“We commend his soul to the mercy of God and ask the clergy, religious, and lay faithful of the Diocese to pray for the eternal repose of his soul,” the statement read.
Wake and funeral arrangements have yet to be announced, but the diocese said he will be laid to rest at Saint Gregory the Great Cathedral in Legazpi City.
Born Sept. 8, 1938, in Malinao, Albay, Cariño was ordained a priest in 1961. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Legazpi on March 9, 1978.
He served as bishop of Borongan from 1980 until Jan. 31, 1986, when he was elected CBCP secretary general.
“We ask the clergy, religious, and lay faithful to join us in prayer for the eternal repose of Bishop Cariño’s soul,” the CBCP said.
“Let us commend him to the mercy of our loving Father, in gratitude for his lifetime of selfless service to the Church and the people of God,” it added.
In 2001, while still serving at the CBCP, then-Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin asked him to serve the ecclesiastical district of Pasig.
Cariño was appointed auxiliary bishop of Daet on June 11, 2003, and later became the fifth bishop of Legazpi in 2005, a position he held until his retirement in November 2007.| – CBCP News
