The interim leader of the Archdiocese of Agana will neither confirm nor deny information Kandit received from four sources independent of each other that he, the bishop of Chalan Kanoa, and Monsignor James Benavente are the three candidates for Archbishop of Agana who were produced from a consultative process with Rome.
“I cannot comment on that,” Father Romeo Convocar, the apostolic administrator told Kandit when asked about the rumors. “Because they work in a manner that is secretive, so people can have presumptions. They could assume that probably because I’m the administrator I could be one of them, but that could be a presumption. Or, if there’s a consultation that’s ongoing and people talk, so … but, I cannot confirm nor deny on things related to that.”
“They” is the Vatican, which has a lengthy, time-consuming process for selecting bishops. Even that process is cloaked in mystery.
“I hope it’s not a very long time,” Father Convocar said with a light-hearted laugh. While Rome takes its time with this process, it is he who has to administer the archdiocese until an archbishop is named. The process “usually involves consultation. Vatican operates in its own way, so I cannot really tell when. But I should say that they are on the process of selecting one.”
“It might be coming from the island, it might be coming from the outside,” he said.
Four separate sources over the past month have told Kandit about Rome’s process. According to them, it involves secret letters from Vatican City to a group of people in Guam who never will be revealed. Those first letters begin the consultation process, and the Guamanians send back to the Vatican their thoughts on a number of priests (or bishops). From there, the Vatican whittles down the list of possible archbishop candidates, burns the letters, then sends new letters to the group of Guamanians with the whittled down list, asking again for their thoughts. The process repeats until the Vatican sends back final secret letters with only three names.
“That is somehow, more or less, the way Rome operates,” Father Convocar confirmed about the process. “In a sense, they will consult people, privately. Privately. But as far as how much consultation is done, as to how many people, and who to consult, I don’t have knowledge of that. Definitely, Rome is kind of very, I should say, careful, in selecting somebody to lead the specific jurisdiction of the people of God.”
According to all four sources, who operate separately from each other and are not known to associate, those three names include Father Convocar, Bishop Ryan Jimenez from the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa in the CNMI, and Monsignor James Benavente, the pastor of Dulce Nombre de Maria Agana Cathedral Basilica.
All four noted that Pope Francis does not have to choose from this list. All four noted that the Apostolic Nuncio for Guam and Oceania – the bishop who serves the Pope as his diplomatic representative to this region – has great influence on this process.
One source said that Rome is considering three others: two Capuchin priests, and Father Paul Gofigan, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Yigo. All three are from Guam.
“We do not know where they will get the new archbishop,” Father Convocar said. “I would just like to respect the process of Rome, and they will give us the archbishop when they are ready to give us the archbishop.”
Father Romeo Convocar
Father Convocar has been the de facto head of the archdiocese since March last year, when Rome appointed him to lead the church during the sede vacante. It is a Latin term the church uses to refer to a vacancy in the office of bishop or Pope. As the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, he somewhat fulfills the archbishop’s duties to administer the church. A protocol, according to church law, went into effect that essentially brought together other priests to help him to administer the archdiocese in the absence of a shepherd, the archbishop.
He has been a priest since 1996, and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Agana in 2013. Since then he has been the pastor of San Isidro parish in Malojloj, the Dulce Nombre de Maria Agana Cathedral Basilica in Agana, and now at Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores parish in Tumon.
Among Father Convocar’s advantages for the position are that he already is filling at least part of the role. Since becoming apostolic administrator, he has presided over the closing of the archdiocese’s darkest era when the church’s bankruptcy case ended. He was described by a fellow priest as “a holy man.”
Bishop Ryan Jimenez
The young Bishop of Chalan Kanoa succeeded the late Bishop Tomas Camacho, when Pope Francis appointed him to the chair on June 24, 2016. He became part of the CNMI in 1995, when he moved to Rota to be a Catholic school teacher at Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja, where he is said to have learned the Chamorro language. He became a priest in 2003 and quickly rose through the ranks of the diocese, starting as pastor of Kristo Rai parish in Garapan.
He has served as Chancellor, Presbyteral Council member, Personal Secretary to the Bishop, and Superintendent of Catholic Schools before his appointment as apostolic administrator during the sede vacante left by Bishop Camacho.
The bishop’s advantages are two-fold. First, he already is a bishop and of a diocese that used to be part of the Archdiocese of Agana at that. Secondly, while the Neocatechumenal Way has grown in numbers under his tenure in Saipan, the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa does not suffer from the deep divisions that growth has caused in the Archdiocese of Agana.
Monsignor James Benavente
The monsignor is rumored to have been considered in 2016 to become the Bishop of Chalan Kanoa, and is seen by many Catholics in Guam to be the obvious front runner for the job. He has held several leadership posts over the past two decades in the archdiocese.
He, along with Father Paul Gofigan, were the victims of a then-vindictive Chancery office under disgraced former Archbishop Anthony Apuron. That fall out started a sort of revolution by Catholic laity that eventually led to the topple of Mr. Apuron and those closest to him who ran the archdiocese at the time.
Both the monsignor and Father Gofigan would be vindicated by Mr. Apuron’s interim successor, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, and both would be reinstated to parishes as pastors and to leadership positions by Archbishop Emeritus Michael Byrnes.
Among Monsignor Benavente’s advantages for the post are his known leadership abilities, the network of support for the church he has built in the wider community, and his pastoral touch.
No one knows who will be selected, and the final decision is the Pope’s. All sources and all information coming from the archdiocese confirm that. No one knows when a decision will be made. But, if the four sources are correct that a final list of names is now under consideration, then Guam may know soon who our next archbishop will be.
[This was the second of a three-part series of stories stemming from Kandit’s Wednesday interview with Father Convocar.]
