Pope Francis appoints new bishop for Philippines’ Tarlac Diocese

Pope Francis on Dec. 29, 2024, appointed Bishop Roberto Calara Mallari as new bishop of the Diocese of Tarlac in the Philippines. / Credit: Diegohanyu16/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 4.0

Vatican City, Dec 31, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Sunday appointed Bishop Roberto Calara Mallari as the new bishop of the Diocese of Tarlac in the Philippines.

Mallari, 66, will succeed the late Bishop Enrique Macaraeg, who died in October 2023, to become the fourth bishop of the Tarlac Diocese. 

As bishop of Tarlac, he will oversee a diocese of 1.2 million Catholics spread across approximately 60 parishes located in the Philippines’ central Luzon region.

After being ordained to the episcopate in 2006, Mallari has since served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga, from 2006 to 2012 and as bishop of San Jose Diocese, Antique, since 2012.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI also assigned Mallari the Italian titular see of Erdonia. 

Mallari was ordained a priest in 1982 and has since served several Catholic communities and parishes across the Philippine provinces of Pampanga and Antique — except for two years when he was appointed parish priest of Immaculate Conception in the Philippines’ capital, Manila, from 1987–1989. 

In Pampanga, Mallari was appointed spiritual director of the Mother of Good Counsel Minor Seminary in San Fernando from 1983–1987 and 1989–1994, and was director of the Commission on Family and Life — connected to the Social Action Center of Pampanga — from 1994–1997.

According to CBCP News, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Mallari has also served as chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education and previously chaired the Office of Social Communications of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

Prior to his priestly ordination, Mallari attended San Carlos Seminary in Makati City and obtained a master’s degree in spirituality at the Focolare Movement’s Priest School for Asia in Tagaytay City. He concluded his studies at the Priestly School of Florence in Italy.