Anthony Cerdan Celino
Anthony Cerdan Celino was born April 29, 1972, in Anda, Pangasinan, in the Philippines, the youngest of seven children. His father died when he was four, and he was raised by his mother, a schoolteacher and adult convert to the Catholic faith who deeply shaped his vocation. An altar server from about age six, he studied at Mary Help of Christians Seminary in the Philippines, graduating top of his class in philosophy in 1993 — the year Bishop Raymundo Peña invited him to El Paso to prepare for the priesthood there. He is a Filipino immigrant, not a Filipino-American by birth.
Celino completed his formation at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois and later earned a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America (2003). He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of El Paso on June 6, 1997, at St. Patrick Cathedral. Over nearly 26 years as a priest he served as judicial vicar, chancellor, moderator of the curia, and vicar general, taught at the Tepeyac Institute, and pastored several parishes.
On February 8, 2023, Pope Francis appointed Celino Auxiliary Bishop of El Paso and Titular Bishop of Maronana; he was ordained a bishop on March 31, 2023 — the first auxiliary bishop in the history of the Diocese of El Paso. As of mid-2026 he remains an auxiliary, serving under diocesan Bishop Mark J. Seitz; he has not been given a diocesan see. His public ministry has centered on the border, immigrants, and asylum seekers, often alongside Bishop Seitz.
Bishop Celino is an auxiliary bishop, not a diocesan ordinary, so he has never held the authority to set or change Traditional Latin Mass policy in El Paso — that power belongs to the diocesan bishop, Mark J. Seitz. There is no public record of Celino making any statement, favorable or hostile, about the traditional liturgy, Traditionis Custodes, or the communities attached to it. On his own record, the honest verdict is that it is too early, and the evidence too thin, to judge.
The relevant context is the diocese around him, and here the news is encouraging for traditionalists. In 2014 Bishop Seitz personally invited the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter to El Paso, establishing them at the historic Immaculate Conception Church — the city's original pro-cathedral — where only the traditional Latin Mass is offered. When Traditionis Custodes came in July 2021, Seitz reassured the FSSP community of his support; because it is an FSSP personal apostolate rather than a diocesan parish Mass, it has been insulated from the harshest effects of the restrictions and has continued uninterrupted.
The fair reading: Celino operates within one of the more TLM-tolerant border dioceses, but that credit belongs to Seitz, not to him. Nothing in Celino's own words or deeds marks him as either a friend or an opponent of the ancient Mass. Should he ever be named a diocesan bishop, his stance would become a live question; until then there is simply not enough to render a verdict on the man himself.