Pope Leo XIV’s first Filipino appointment is new Infanta bishop

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From Aurora to the Netherlands, bishop-elect Dave Dean Capucao of Infanta has served as a Catholic priest for over three decades

MANILA, Philippines – Pope Leo XIV made his first Filipino appointment by naming Father Dave Dean Capucao, a Bicolano priest, as the new bishop of the Prelature of Infanta. 

Capucao, 59, is set to replace Bishop Bernardino Cortez, the Vatican announced on Friday, May 16. Cortez had reached the bishops’ mandatory retirement age of 75 in July 2024.

The Infanta bishop-elect has been the rector of Saint Joseph Formation House in Quezon City, a seminary belonging to the Prelature of Infanta, since 2015.

A prelature is a Catholic territory similar to a diocese but is usually smaller in scope or size. 

The Prelature of Infanta, in particular, is a territory 127 kilometers east of the Philippine capital Manila and covers northern Quezon province and the nearby province of Aurora. It is composed of around 373,000 church members, making it relatively small in this Southeast Asian country of 86 million Catholics. 

Capucao, as the bishop of Infanta, is expected to face challenges such as poverty and natural calamities, as Quezon and Aurora are among the most typhoon-prone places in the country. 

The new bishop of Infanta was born in Camarines Sur on September 25, 1965.

He has been a Catholic priest for over three decades, having been ordained for the Prelature of Infanta on October 3, 1994. 

From serving the parish of a poor area in Aurora province for six years, Capucao has had experience serving as a parish priest in the Netherlands for four years. 

Capucao gained academic experience abroad when, as a priest for six years in 2000, he was sent to study at Catholic University of Nijmegen, now Radboud University, in the Netherlands. He earned his master’s degree in intercultural and interreligious theology in 2002, according to the news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). 

He later worked as a junior researcher at the university from 2002 to 2006. It was during this period when he wrote his dissertation on religion and ethnocentrism, CBCP News said.

He finished a doctorate in theology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and a doctorate in sacred theology at Université catholique de Louvain.

Capucao’s experience aligns him with the background of Leo, the first pope from the United States, who served as an Augustinian missionary to Peru and earned a doctorate in canon law from the Angelicum in Rome.

While he is Leo’s first Filipino appointment, however, it is highly likely that the process of his nomination began under the pontificate of the late pope Francis. – Rappler.com