POPE Leo XIV has appointed on Friday night, November 21, 2025, a new bishop for the Diocese of San Jose de Nueva Ecija after being vacant for the past eight months.
In a report by CBCP News, the Pontiff has designated Fr. Samuel Agcaracar as the new shepherd in Northern Nueva Ecija, and will succeed Bishop Roberto Mallari, who now heads the Diocese of Tarlac.
"The appointment ends the diocese’s nearly eight-month wait for a new bishop," noted CBCP News.
Prior to his appointment, Agcaracar has been serving as rector of the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City and provincial admonitor of the SVD Philippine Central Province.
Born in Claveria, Cagayan, the fifth bishop of the San Jose diocese first worked as a teacher while serving as a catechist in his home parish of St. Joseph.
He later entered the Society of the Divine Word seminary and studied philosophy at Christ the King Seminary in Quezon City and theology at the Divine Word School of Theology in Tagaytay.
Ordained in 2007, he first served as high school director at the Divine Word College of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro.
He also taught at the Divine Word Seminary and the Divine Word Institute of Mission Studies, both in Tagaytay.
Agcaracar holds a doctorate in missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
CBCP News said the date of his episcopal ordination and installation will be announced later. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)