By Pacific Island Times News Staff
Pope Francis, has appointed Bishop Ryan P. Jimenez of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa on Saipan as the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agaña, succeeding Archbishop Michael Byrnes who resigned last year due to health reasons.
The appointment was officially published on July 6.
The Installation Mass will be held on Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna, Guam.
Archbishop-elect Jimenez is currently the president of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici), and the vice president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania, which is composed of the bishops conferences of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and CEPAC.
He also serves as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Jimenez came as a migrant worker to the Northern Mariana Islands in 1995 and taught at Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja, a Catholic school on Rota.
In 1999, he was accepted to the seminary program of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa; he was ordained to the priesthood on June 8, 2003. In 2010, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Chalan Kanoa and, in 2016, as its second bishop.
Archbishop-elect Jimenez began his studies and formation for the priesthood at St. Joseph Seminary College (high school department) in the Diocese of Dumaguete, Philippines. He then transferred to the college program of the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary in Quezon City, earning an undergraduate degree from the Ateneo de Manila University.
Subsequently, he earned three advanced degrees from St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California: Bachelor of Sacred Theology, Master of Divinity, and Master of Arts in Theology.
In 2025, he expects to graduate from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University, the Jesuit University of New York, with a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree.
Since March 28, 2023, the Very Reverend Romeo Convocar has served as the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese after Byrnes stepped down.
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