The Vatican has announced the appointment of Father Gregory Ramon Gaston as new rector of Il Pontificio Collegio Filippino, the residence for Filipino priests doing further studies in Rome.

He succeeds Bishop Ruperto Santos, who was installed as head of the northern Philippine Diocese of Balanga last July.

Members of the Collegio community gain from exposure to the cultural diversity of Rome, as well as the opportunity to minister to Filipino migrant workers. “The priests are often invited to celebrate weekend Mass in Filipino migrant centers,” said Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon.

Father Gaston will take over the Collegio’s rectorship from his current post as Dean of the Holy Apostles Senior Seminary in Makati City.

A scientist who has served on the Pontifical Council for the Family, he is a well known critic of the promotion of contraceptive use and has frequently spoken on life and family issues.

He earned a degree in zoology at the University of the Philippines before being ordained by Pope John Paul II in 1993 and now holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the Angelicum in Rome. He has also completed a
post-doctoral fellowship in bioethics at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston, USA.

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