Diocese of Novaliches gets its 3rd bishop

FILE: Bishop-elect Roberto Gaa of the Diocese of Novaliches. (Photo Courtesy of Holy Family Parish-Pasig via CBCP News/Website)

MANILA — The Diocese of Novaliches has a new bishop, the third in its 16 years of existence as a separate bishopric covering the former Rizal province town of Novaliches.

The new bishop of Novaliches is Most. Rev. Roberto O. Gaa, 57. formerly of the Archdiocese of Manila. He succeeded Most Rev. Antonio R. Tobias, the second Novaliches bishop whose retirement last June 6 was accepted by Pope Francis in the Vatican.

Tobias, 77, had been the bishop of Novaliches since 2003.

The Diocese of Novaliches was created on Dec. 7, 2002, by Pope John Paul VI upon the request of then Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal L.

Sin. Its first bishop was Msgr. Teodoro C. Bacani Jr. who served for just one year before he resigned.

The Diocese of Novaliches now has about two million Catholics in 69 parishes that are geographically located in the northernmost parts of the Metropolitan Manila cities of Quezon and Caloocan.

According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website, Gaa was born in Manila in 1962 and was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Manila in 2000.

Gaa holds a licentiate in spirituality from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Gaa was installed canonically on Aug. 24 at the Cathedral Shrine and Parish of the Good Shepherd in Barangay Greater Fairview, Novaliches, Quezon City by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, in which Novaliches is one of its suffragan dioceses.

The canonical installation as the new bishop of Novaliches took place two days after his episcopal ordination at the Manila Cathedral on Aug. 22.

Gaa is not new to the Novaliches diocese.

In 2001, when Novaliches was still under the Manila Archdiocese, Gaa was assigned at a parish in Pangarap Village, North Caloocan City.