DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 January) — The remains of Davao’s Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla will be buried at the San Pedro Catheral’s crypt on Monday, January 15, after the 10 a.m. mass.
MIndanao’s lone Cardinal Orlando Quevedo and Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila, 14 Archbishops and Bishops will be among those who will concelebrate the funeral mass, Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles told MindaNews on Sunday.
Capalla, the third Archbishop of Davao, will be the third Archbishop to be buried there. The first Archbishop of Davao, Clovis Thibault, PME, died on April 20, 1975, and the second, Antonio Mabutas, died on April 22, 1999.
There is a fourth Bishop buried there — Alfredo Baquial, Auxiliary Bishop of Davao from 1988 until his death in 1993.
In his announcement on January 7, Archbishop Valles, who succeeded Capalla in 2012, said interment rites for Capalla will immediately follow at the Dormitium de San Pedro, a columbarium and ossuarium located underground, beneath the San Pedro Cathedral’s main altar.
Capalla served as Auxiliary Bishop of Davao from 1975 to 1977, was Bishop of Iligan from 1977 to 1994, returned to this city as Bishop co-adjutor from 1994 to 1996 and was Davao Archbishop from 1996 until Valles took over in 2012.
He died shortly before 2 a.m. on January 6 in his residence at the Regional Seminary compound at the age of 89.
Capalla is the second Mindanao Bishop buried this month. On January 11, Pagadian Bishop Ronald “Bong” Lunas, who died on January 2, was buried at the Santo Niño Cathedral in Pagadian. He was 57.
Lunas died of complications on January 2, five days after his heart bypass surgery on December 28 at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.
According to the statement of the Pagadian Diocese, Lunas “passed away… due to complications after his bypass operation.”
“The bishop had been in the hospital since early November following a heart attack and stroke,” according to the report of CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) News. (MindaNews)
