SURE ENOUGH...

By Tim Rohr

Yesterday I noticed that there has been an inordinate amount of activity on this blog. Normal monthly views average around 40,000. However, last month the views numbered 102,753. And this month, only after a few days, the views already number 74,475. 

I was wondering what was driving all that traffic so I looked at the most viewed posts over the last 7 days. Here they are:

The list goes on. All of these are years-old posts from when the Apuron-Neo wars were raging. So I suspected something was about to break. 

And sure enough it did:

Pope Appoints Bishop Ryan Jimenez as Archbishop of Agaña

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(CEPAC, Suva, Fiji) – The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has appointed Most Reverend Ryan P. Jimenez,  Bishop of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, as the new Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Agaña, Guam. The appointment was officially published on July 6, 2024 (12:00 noon CET Rome).

The Installation Mass will be held on August 15, 2024, 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 CEPAC, the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici), and the Vice-President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) — 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 (USCCB) Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Islander  Affairs.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Archbishop-elect Jimenez came as a migrant worker to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in 1995 and taught at Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja, a Catholic school on the island of 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 (STB), Master of Divinity (MDiv), and Master of Arts in Theology (MA). 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 Metropolitan Archdiocese of Agaña following the resignation of Archbishop Michael Byrnes due to health reasons.

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Photo info: The Most Reverend Ryan P. Jimenez,  Bishop of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome in this file photo provided by CEPAC, the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific.