Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo was surprised with the recent development in the Catholic world as he was named by Pope Francis as one of the 16 new cardinals on Sunday. He will now be addressed as His Emininence Orlando Cardinal Quevedo.
Photo Credit: Jay Directo/AFP/Rappler
The Archbishop of Cotabato was named as one of the few bishops who will be elevated into a cardinal, he will be the first Filipino to be given a Cardinal rank by the newest leader of the Catholic faith, Pope Francis.
Archbishop Orlando Quevedo was born on March 11, 1939 at Laoag City, Ilocos Sur but he moved to Baya, Marbel where his parents lived and worked as teachers.
The priest is the youngest among four siblings, he spent his High School years at Notre Dame Marbel before he entered the San Jose Seminary in Metro Manila. Archbishop Quevedo studied Theology at San Antonio, Texas and he was ordained as a priest on June 6, 1964 and got his episcopal ordination in October 28, 1980.
In a recent interview with ABS-CBN, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo admitted that he was still in shock and he could not believe that he will be among the new cardinals. For the past few years in the Philippines Roman Catholic history, only seated archbishops in Manila and Cebu were chosen as cardinals.
Archbishop Quevedo told ABS-CBN that he was honored to be chosen as the first Cardinal in Mindanao. He was quoted as saying “Cotabato maybe was chosen because of its a small scale of all the problems like under developed, poverty, peace and relationship among Christians and Muslim,” Quevedo said.
