Vatican creates Diocese of Ipil

MANILA, Philippines - The Vatican has announced the creation of the Diocese of Ipil in Zamboanga del Norte and the appointment of its first bishop.

The CBCPNews, the official news service provider of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said Julius Tonel was chosen as the first bishop of the Diocese of Ipil.

Ipil, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga, is the 11th diocese in Mindanao. It has 600,000 residents, 65 percent of whom are Catholics.

It has 19 parishes, 32 priests, and 31 religious sisters.

To date, the country has a total of 16 archdioceses, 58 dioceses, seven apostolic vicariates, four territorial prelatures, and one military ordinariate.