ROME: September 3,
2014 –
Bishop
Precioso Cantillas, SDB is here
in Rome for the meeting of the
Governing Committee for the
International Catholic Migration
Commission (ICMC) held in Casa
Bonus Pastor near the Vatican
City. Although in the context of
the Philippine Bishops
Conference, he now handles the
commission on the Family and the
commission on Bio-ethics, his
other involvement with
international organizations are
still active. He is the
Secretary of the Governing
Committee for the ICMC, based in
Geneva Switzerland.
As soon as the final session was
over, he took the opportunity to
go to the SDB Generalate to meet
Fr Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB
-our Rector Major. The last time
Bishop Cantillas was in the
Generalate was about 8 years ago
when he met Fr Pascual Chavez,
SDB.
The Rector Major was so
accommodating, he had a friendly
chat with Bishop Cantillas
despite his afternoon schedule
that was already spent with
meetings and consultations with
different non-Salesian groups.
What did they talk about? They
had a warm sharing of their
pastoral experiences as pastors
and animators. Mons. Cantillas
is already 17 years as bishop.
He first served as Auxiliary
Bishop of Cebu for 2 years then
was transferred to the Diocese
of Maasin (Southern Leyte) where
he is the ordinary for the 41
parishes with about a hundred
priests serving a total of
roughly 500 thousand faithful.
The Bishop also continues to write
collaborately in the Sunday
section of a national daily newspaper:
Reflections for the Working
Soul.
Although the super
typhoon of November 2013 hit
also a portion of his diocese,
there was not much widespread
devastation as compared with
other places.
The Rector Major took the
opportunity to extend again his
invitation for the gathering of
all Salesian bishops in May
2015. Then they joined the other
Salesians for the evening
prayers and supper with the
community of the Generalate.
