Dennis Cabanada Villarojo
Dennis Cabanada Villarojo was born April 18, 1967, in Cebu City. He completed high school at Colegio de San Jose-Recoletos in Cebu City, studied philosophy at San Carlos Seminary College, and studied theology at the University of Santo Tomas, where he obtained a licentiate in ecclesiastical philosophy, followed by a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome from 1998 to 2001. His episcopal motto is Consolamini popule meus, 'Be consoled, my people' (Isaiah 40:1).
He was ordained a deacon by Jaime Sin in Manila in 1993 and ordained a priest on June 10, 1994, by Ricardo Vidal at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Cebu City. He served as personal secretary to Vidal from 1994 to 1998, studied in Rome from 1998 to 2001, then continued as Vidal's secretary and pastoral planning coordinator until 2010, chaired the pastoral team at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in Capitol Site, Cebu City, from 2010, and served as secretary-general of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, held in Cebu in January 2016. He is a member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites.
Pope Francis designated him an auxiliary bishop of Cebu on July 3, 2015. He was consecrated on August 10, 2015, at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral by José S. Palma, with Ricardo Vidal and Apostolic Nuncio Giuseppe Pinto as co-consecrators, as titular bishop of Gisipa. Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Malolos on May 14, 2019. He was installed on August 21, 2019, at the Malolos Cathedral, the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, presided over by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle and Apostolic Nuncio Gabriele Caccia, as the diocese's fifth bishop, sitting in the cathedra in sign of possession. He succeeded Jose Oliveros, who had died in May 2018; Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao had administered the diocese in the meantime.
- 2021-12-19Diocesan announcement granting permission that the Traditional Latin Mass (Roman Missal 1962) be offered in the Diocese of Malolos, in obedience to Traditionis custodes, authorizing Fr. Jeffrey Zuñiga (Former Adoration Chapel of San Jose Esposo de Maria Parish, San Jose, San Miguel, Bulacan) and Fr. Herbert Agustine N. Bacani (Templete de Santo Niño de Malolos, Malolos City); the faithful are welcome provided they accept the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. ↗
In Malolos, Bishop Villarojo's own December 19, 2021 diocesan announcement grants permission for the Traditional Latin Mass (Roman Missal 1962) in the diocese, in obedience to Traditionis custodes, at two named venues with two authorized priests.
In Cebu, no act is coded: the auxiliary tenure closed in May 2019, before the TC window. The pre-TC baseline for Malolos is caveated in the tenure block: a 2008 traditionalist listing at a different venue, from a tier-3 source.