Filipino priest in Spain dies of Covid-19 complications

According to an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Phillies (CBCP) news website on Saturday, Father Gilbert Luis Centina III was buried on the same day at a public cemetery in a ceremony witnessed by his Augustinian community. (Pexels photo)

MANILA – A 72-year-old Filipino clergy died on Friday in the city of León in northwest Spain due to “complications” from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

According to an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Phillies (CBCP) news website on Saturday, Father Gilbert Luis Centina III was buried on the same day at a public cemetery in a ceremony witnessed by his Augustinian community.

Centina was formerly of the Spanish Augustinian Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines before he was assigned to different missions abroad.

In Spain, he first served in the Augustinians houses in Neguri and Loui from April 2013 until July 2019. He was last assigned to the Colegio de Nuestra Madre del Buen Consejo in León.

Centina’s accolades included winning the Palanca Memorial Awards, the country’s highest literary honor, in English poetry in 1975.

In 1983, he also received the Focus Magazine literary award in English poetry. His first novel, Wages of Sin, written under a pseudonym, was published in Honolulu in 1988.

His works include five poetry collections: Getxo and Other Poems, Triptych and Collected Poems, Somewhen, Glass of Liquid Truths, and Our Hidden Galaxette.

The Augustinian friar was also the former school chaplain of Colegio San Agustin-Makati and pastor at San Jose Parish in Iloilo City.

Last March, Filipina Benedictine nun, Sr. Maria Gratia Balogot also died of Covid-19 in Spain.

The 71-year-old nun superior of their community in India, contracted the virus while on a short visit to Spain to renew her visa.