By Marisol Bo-oc | 12:22 AM June 05, 2024
Pope Francis has appointed Reverend Fr. Eliseo Napiere, a Bohol-born priest based in the United States, as an ecclesiastical superior in the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu.
According to the Holy See Press Office on Monday, Napiere, 58, will be serving as head of the “Missio sui iuris” or an independent mission in Funafati, which sits in the west-central portion of the Pacific Ocean.
Prior to his appointment, Napiere was a member of the Presbyteral Council and the parish priest of Saint James the Less in Perris in the diocese of San Bernardino, California.
From Saint James the Less in Perris:
Napiere is member of the Mission Society of the Philippines (MSP), the Official missionary arm of the Philippine Church founded by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 1965.
He was ordained priest in January 19, 1991 during the opening of the 2nd Plenary Council of the Philippines.
In his early years in priesthood, he was assigned as a Dean of Seminarians at the Fil-Mission Seminary in Tagaytay City and a member of the MSP General Council before he was assigned as a missionary to the Diocese of Taichung in Taiwan.
He served as the Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and a National Director of the Apostleship of the Sea of the Chinese Regional Bishops’ Conference (CRBC) from 2002 to 2016.
In 2016, he pioneered the MSP Mission in the Diocese of San Bernardino, Ca. and was the Parochial Vicar of St. Edward Church in Corona before he was appointed Pastor of St. James the Less Church in Perris in 2018.
