Roman Catholic Diocese of Alaminos


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Alaminos is a Roman Rite diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
The diocese was created and erected, January 12, 1985, and comprises 14 municipalities in the western part
of the province of Pangasinan. The diocese has experience no jurisdictional changes, and is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan.
The see is vacant following the appointment of Bishop Ricardo Lingan Baccay as Metropolitan Archbishop of Tuguegarao on October 18, 2019 as successor of Archbishop Sergio Lasam Utleg. On January 14, 2020, Pope Francis appointed His Excellency Most Rev. Fidelis Bautista Layog, D.D., Auxiliary Bishop of Lingayen-Dagupan as the Apostolic Administrator of the diocese.
The current bishop of the diocese is Most Rev. Mark Patrick Castro Ancheta, DD.

Ordinaries

In the past the Alaminos City had various names and underwent several transfers and locations except, for a gap of half a century, the Recollects stayed at Alaminos since its foundation in 1610 until the Philippine Revolution of 1896. A great fire reduced the town into ashes and it was thereafter renamed Sarapsap. The actual name was taken after Governor General Juan de Alaminos who visited it in 1872.
Among other edifices constructed by Recollects is the majestic cathedral dedicated to Saint Joseph. Father Manuel Bosquete who was at the helm of the San Jose de Casborran mission from 1838–1849 started the construction of the divine temple. His successor Father Jose Tornos, who was proficient in Pangasinense, inaugurated it in 1857. This Recollect minister who took over the parochial administration in 1849 remained in Alaminos for almost thirty years and endowed the church with the best ornaments. Father Tornos died in 1878 and was buried in the future cathedral. At the church pavement one can view his tombstone in Spanish.
Father Patricio Marcellan writes in 1879: "The present church and parochial house are made of brick manufactured in the same town. The first oven for brick-making making was built under the supervision of Father Manuel Bosquete, the first Recollect parish priest of this town , and the edifices are the tallest and most spacious in the province, which draws naturally any visitor's attention." The church still attracts attention up to this day, already as a cathedral since its erection of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alaminos in 1985. Alaminos is not a big city in terms of population, with only about 75,000 inhabitants. But the faithful can boast of the structure of their cathedral—spacious, majestic and well-proportioned—and equally stable belfry made of bricks.