By Katrina Gracia Consebido
Retired Bishop Angel Hobayan, the country’s oldest bishop and the first bishop of the Diocese of Catarman, died at the age of 93 on March 11.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) extended their condolences to the late bishop’s family and relatives.
“We extend our sincerest condolences to the bereaved family and relatives and to all the faithful of the diocese,” Bishop Emmanuel Trance of Catarman Diocese said.
Hobayan died at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center at around 2:30 a.m.
He was a native of Taft, Eastern Samar and was ordained priest on March 25, 1955.
He was incardinated at the Borongan Diocese and served as its vicar general as well as the first rector of the Seminario de Jesus Nazareno.
Pope Paul VI appointed him to head the Catarman diocese in 1974, making him the first and only bishop from the Borongan Diocese.
On March 5, 1975, he was ordained as a bishop. His inauguration occurred on March 11, 1975.
Hobayan stepped down as bishop on March 10, 2005, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
His death occurred exactly 48 years after the canonical establishment of the Diocese of Catarman. – gb
