Butuan City – An estimated 3,500 parishioners, together with hundreds of priests from different parts of the country, paid their last respect during funeral rites for Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Butuan City Tuesday.
Pueblos served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Butuan for 22 years, after he was installed on January 17, 1996, having being appointed by Pope John Paul II on November 1995.
According to the Diocese of Butuan, the bishop was 74 years old when he succumbed to Acute Leukemia at the Cardinal Santos Hospital in San Juan, Metro Manila on Saturday, October 21, 2017.
The remains of Pueblos was first brought to Tagbilaran City in Bohol province on October 28, as the family of the deceased bishop requested. From Bohol, Pueblo’s remains were then transferred by boat to Nasipit Port on October 30, then onward to Butuan City.
Pueblo will be the first bishop to be buried at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Butuan City.
He was a member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, and vice chair of the Permanent Committee on Public Affairs (PCPA).
He was also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the diocesan school, Father Saturnino Urios University (FSUU) in Butuan City.
Born on March 8, 1943 in the town of Loon in Bohol, Pueblos was educated at the Immaculate Heart Seminary in Tagbilaran City and then at the San Carlos Major Seminary before being ordained a priest on March 28, 1968.
Pope John Paul II, appointed him auxiliary bishop of Davao On April 29, 1985, with his episcopal ordination taking place on June 24, 1985.
On February 3, 1987, he was appointed bishop of Kidapawan, then appointed to be Butuan’s bishop on 1995 after Bishop Carmelo Morelos was transferred to head the Archdiocese of Zamboanga.
