Socrates Buenaventura Villegas
Socrates Buenaventura Villegas was born September 28, 1960. He was educated in Pateros and at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, and earned a master's degree in theological studies at San Carlos Seminary.
He was ordained a priest for Manila on October 5, 1985, by Cardinal Jaime Sin at Manila Cathedral. He served as Cardinal Sin's personal secretary for fifteen years and as vicar general of Manila for thirteen years, was the first Rector of the EDSA Shrine (1989-2004), and joined the Dominican Order in 2015. His episcopal motto is Pax.
He was consecrated a bishop on August 31, 2001, served as Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, as Bishop of Balanga (2004-2009), and as Apostolic Administrator of San Fernando de La Union (2011-2013, concurrent with Lingayen-Dagupan), and has been Metropolitan Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan since his possession on November 4, 2009. He was president of the CBCP (2013-2017).
- 2021-07-24Circular designating the Santuario de San Juan Evangelista, Dagupan City, as the only approved venue for Mass with the Roman Missal of 1962 in the archdiocese; only Msgr. Orlando Sabangan, Msgr. Felipe Matias, and Fr. Michell Joe Zerrudo (Diocese of Cubao) authorized to celebrate there; Masses twice a month subject to priest availability. ↗
On July 24, 2021, eight days after Traditionis Custodes, Archbishop Villegas issued a circular designating the Santuario de San Juan Evangelista in Dagupan City as the only approved venue for Mass with the Roman Missal of 1962 in the archdiocese, authorizing only Msgr. Orlando Sabangan, Msgr. Felipe Matias, and Fr. Michell Joe Zerrudo of the Diocese of Cubao to celebrate there, and permitting such Masses twice a month subject to priest availability. The circular's stated framing, as reported, was pastoral charity and ecclesial unity in faithful obedience to Traditionis Custodes.
The posture is coded restricted, not preserved, because the confinement — one venue only, twice a month only, three named celebrants only, subject to availability — is the operative content of the act, not an incidental detail. The pre-Traditionis Custodes baseline was not established, so no claim is made that the circular reduced provision from a higher level or preserved a prior level unchanged; the circular names no venue it closed, and no closure list is invented. If the project's working definition of preserved is any continuing 1962 Missal permission granted by the bishop himself, however confined, the same circular would code as preserved; the facts do not change under either label, and the definition applied should be recorded at audit.
No post-2021 act by Villegas (renewal, expansion, further restriction, suppression) was found. The last tier-1/2 evidence is the 2021 circular; a tier-3 society page records a 1962 Missal Mass at the Santuario on February 2, 2023, corroborating use in early 2023 only. The 2024-2026 schedule is not established, and the Santuario is called a venue, not a parish, until its canonical status is checked.