09/03/2018
The Diocese of Nueva Segovia was established together with Cebu and Nueva Caceres by Pope Clement VIII on August 14, 1595 by virtue of the Papal Bull, Super Specula Militantis Ecclesia under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. Its first bishop was Fray Miguel de Benavides, OP. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended to the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Batanes, Mountain Province and five northern towns of Tarlac.
Although Vigan was the oldest town created by the Spaniards in the north, it was not made the seat of the Diocese which was created for Northern Luzon since the preferred locale, Nueva Segovia, a city at the mouth of the Ibanag River in Cagayan, was by then already a flourishing Spanish settlement while Vigan was then only a pueblo, a town. Eventually however, the city of Nueva Segovia was gradually effaced by the floods of Rio Grande, and the seat was provisionally transferred to the nearby town of Lal-lo, Cagayan. On September 7, 1758, the seat was permanently transferred to Vigan, retaining the old name, up to the present. The transfer was made at the request of Bishop Juan de la Fuente Yepes during the Pontificate of Benedict XIV. The year 2008 marks the 250th year since the transfer.
Nueva Segovia was elevated to an archdiocese, separated from Manila on June 29, 1951, by virtue of the Papal Bull of Pope Pius XII, Quo in Philippina Republica. As the other local Churches matured, there was eventual weaning from the archdiocese. Presently, it covers the civil Province of Ilocos Sur, with the Dioceses of Laoag, Bangued and Baguio, and the Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe as suffragans. The Most Reverend Santiago C. Sancho was the first archbishop of the newly elevated metropolitan church. Since Archbishop Sancho, there had been five other Ordinaries of Nueva Segovia – Archbishops Juan C. Sison, Jose T. Sanchez, Orlando B. Quevedo, Edmundo M. Abaya, Ernesto A. Salgado and currently, Marlo Mendoza Peralta who is 37th bishop and 7th archbishop.
The civil province of Ilocos Sur, the locus of the Archdiocese, lies at the northwestern coast of Luzon, bounded on the west by the South China Sea, on the east by the Cordillera mountain ranges, on the north by Province of Ilocos Norte, and the south by the Province of La Union. Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur, approximately 408 kilometers north of Manila and 80 kilometers south of Laoag, is the seat of the Archdiocese. The land area of the province is 2,647 square kilometers of sandy, rocky and relatively fertile land. On the western side, there is a continuity of coastal plain where most of the towns and parishes are located. In the eastern side are mountainous portions where traveling and communication has been a challenge. There, roads are poor, few and far between. Eight towns in this eastern portion are sometimes isolated from the lowlands when the rainy season brings in heavy and continuous rainfall, making the mountain roads practically impassable.
The Province of Ilocos Sur is home to 626,912 inhabitants, 513,186 of which are Catholics. The rest of the population is of other Christian denominations and other religions. The people are mostly rural. Cultural and ethnic groups and ancestry include the Kankana-ey, Bag-o, Itneg, Tingguian and the majority Ilokanos. The main dialect is, thus, Ilocano. Livelihood include farming, aqua-agriculture, small-time fishing, furniture carpentry and retail business as well as various industries like pottery and ceramics, weaving and bamboo craft among others. Farmlands usually owned in small sizes are hardly tillable for rice outside the rainy season due to lack of irrigation systems. During the dry season, some venture into alternative crops of to***co, corn, garlic, onions and vegetables.
The archdiocese is subdivided into five vicariates comprising 40 parishes all of which have resident pastors. Structures of participation and empowerment are in place – Pastoral and Finance Councils in all parishes.
A number of educational centers contribute to Christian Formation of the young. There are two Catholic Colleges and eight Parochial Schools and several others ran by the Religious.
The archdiocese maintains a complex of mass communications media – an AM radio station, DzNS (963 kHz) founded in 1968; a weekly newspaper, Timek ti Amianan founded in 1983; and a printing press, the Imprenta Nueva Segovia founded in 1995.
Nueva Segovia is staffed by the archbishop with 74 priests in the ministries of the archdiocese together with hundreds of religious sisters and lay collaborators. Two seminaries exist within the archdiocese – the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, a high school seminary, and the Immaculate Conception School of Theology, the Regional Theology Seminary for Northern Luzon.
