FIRST ILOKANO CARDINAL

   

     From the lead paragraph of the first page of the country's most prestigious newspaper, Philippine Daily Inquirer, where the blogger was a correspondent:

     KIDAPAWAN CITY--The chant "Habemus cardinalem" (We have a cardinal) reverberated around the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation and across the country on Sunday night as news spread that Cotabato Archibishop Orlando B. Quevedo had been appointed by Pope Francis to the College of Cardinals.

     And the blogger says with pride in the language in which the new prince of the Church was born,  "Addaantayo iti Ilokano a Cardinal" (We have an Ilokano Cardinal).
     Indeed, the soon to be installed Cardinal comes from the hardy race of Ilokanos who inhabit the narrow piece of coastal land in Northwestern Luzon, but now are found all over the country and the world especially in Hawaii and the US Mainland. 
     Archbishop Quevedo was born in Laoag City in 1939 but his family moved to Marbel, Cotabato in Mindanao in 1947. He was an altar boy and sold the weekly paper, Mindanao Cross, which celebrated its 65 year anniversary last year. He studied at the San Jose Seminary in Quezon City, was ordained priest in 1964 and became prelate of Kidapawan in 1980.
     He went on to become bishop of his adopted province of Cotabato and archbishop of Vigan City- based Nueva Segovia whose territory include the three Ilocos provinces and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
     Hail to the first Ilokano Cardinal!