Capucao named Infanta prelate

THE Vatican announced on Friday that Fr. Dave Dean Capucao has been named as the new bishop of the Prelature of Infanta by Pope Leo XIV, marking the pontiff's first appointment of a Filipino prelate since the beginning of his pontificate.

Capucao, 59, will succeed Bishop Bernardino Cortez, who retired after leading the prelature for more than nine years.

The resignation of Cortez, submitted upon turning 75 in July 2024, was accepted following the Ecclesiae Sanctae, the 1966 apostolic directive by Pope Paul VI requiring bishops to step down upon reaching the age limit.

Bishop-elect Capucao becomes the fourth prelate of Infanta, a prelature that spans parts of the provinces of Quezon and Aurora in the northern Philippines.

Ordained to the priesthood on Oct. 3, 1994, for the Infanta prelature, Capucao began his ministry as the founding pastor of a parish in a remote, impover-ished village in Aurora. After six years in pastoral work, he pursued higher theological studies abroad.

In 2000, Capucao earned a master's degree in intercultural and interreligious theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (now Radboud University) in the Netherlands. He later worked as a junior researcher at the university, focusing on religion and ethnocentrism, and defended his doctoral dissertation in 2009.

His academic journey continued with a doctorate in sacred theology from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Alongside his scholarly work, Capucao also served in parish ministry in the Netherlands, notably in the Saint Ludger Parish in the area of Lichtenvoorde and Winterswijk.

Returning to the Philippines in 2011, he took on leadership roles at the St. Joseph Formation House in Quezon City, becoming its rector in 2015. He has since held multiple roles in education and administration, including serving as superintendent of the Catholic Association of Schools in the Prelature of Infanta and teaching in theological institutions.

Currently, he is president of the Center for Empirical Studies on Spirituality, Theology and Religion–Asia and is active in local and international theological cir-cles.

He sits on the prelature's Presbyteral Council and is affiliated with global research bodies such as the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion, and the International Society of Empirical Research in Theology.