Retired Archbishop Angel Lagdameo died on July 8. (Photo: UCA News)
A former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has died.
Retired Archbishop Angel Lagdameo succumbed to complications arising out of recent surgery in Iloilo City in the Visayas region on July 8. He was 81.
“Archbishop Angel Lagdameo returned to our Creator at 8:30 am at the age of 81,” Jaro Archdiocese in Iloilo province said in a post on Facebook.
The archdiocese is yet to announce details of the wake as thousands of churchgoers, including the archbishop’s former parish, expressed their condolences to the archbishop’s family.
The San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish in Iloilo said it was greatly saddened by the news. Archbishop Lagdameo served as parish priest there from 1980 to 1986.
“Let us include him in our prayers and masses. We want to express our sincerest condolences to the family of Archbishop Lagdameo,” the parish said on Facebook.
Other clergymen offered prayers following news of the archbishop’s death.
Archbishop Lagdameo served as the president of the CBCP from 2005 to 2009. Prior to this, he also served as its vice president for four years.
He was a former chairman of the Office of the Laity of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and served as chairman of the Episcopal Commission on the Laity from 1990 to 2000.
Lagdameo was ordained a priest for Lucena Diocese, south of Manila, on Dec. 19, 1964. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cebu in June 1980.
Pope Francis accepted Lagdameo’s resignation at the age of 77 in 2018.
In 2008, he was among senior Catholic prelates who were called upon by critics of former president, Gloria Arroyo, to stage protests against her. Archbishop Lagdameo responded that only a bloodless and peaceful "people power" movement could depose the then president.
The archbishop, together with other prelates, was accused of ousting Arroyo but he denied it.
“These are fabricated stories without proof as to their veracity. I am making an appeal to the sources of the stories to clarify themselves for the sake of the common good,” Archbishop Lagdameo told reporters in 2008.
