In 1991, the late Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos who was then the parish priest of the Mt. Carmel Church in Balilihan town officiated the wedding of one his altar boys.
That boy would later on become the governor of Bohol.
Today, that boy, Gov. Edgar Chatto, leads Boholanos who knew Pueblos in mourning the death of the prelate who was the head of the Archdiocese of Butuan until his demise on Saturday evening. He was 74.
The governor publicly expressed his profound grief during the monthly provincial government convocation program at the Capitol grounds on Monday.
Known to many as Bishop Didi, Pueblos had served in many parishes and schools in Bohol before being appointed as bishop and assigned in Mindanao.
Chatto recalled the time when the bishop, who was born in Loon, was then the parish priest of the Mt. Carmel Parish in the governor’s town of Balilihan.
The then child Chatto served as an altar boy.
Diocesan priest Fr. Lito Geangan, also a Balilinhon, was an altar boy then, too.
Chatto also recalled when he and Geangan escorted Pueblos to his new assignment and installation as auxilliary bishop of Davao years back.
Then, they visited Pueblos in his next Mindanao assignment in Kidapawan, Cotabato and, much later until his death, in Butuan where the bishop would have served for exactly 22 years this November.
The governor said his family will always remember the late bishop who administered his wedding with the former Pureza Veloso, now the mayor of Balilihan.
The governor’s wife and Bohol’s First Lady is a daughter of former Tagbilaran City Councilor Primitiva Veloso and a sister of incumbent City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso.
Pueblos also administered the wedding rites of Chatto’s brothers and sisters.
Bishop Didi’s last visit to his home province was when he officiated the silver or 25th wedding anniversary rites of the Bohol First Couple last year.
He was also the personal confidant of the governor’s mother, the late Balilihan Mayor Victoria Migriño Chatto, who died just last month.
Three days before Pueblos passed away, Chatto joined the Boholano Catholic faithfuls in grieving over the death of Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal in Cebu City on October 18. He was 86.
The cardinal had served well the church, including the Dioceses of Tagbilaran and Talibon, both in Bohol, the governor said.
It was Vidal who personally conferred to Chatto the “San Pedro Calungsod Award” as a “pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor congressman” in a formal ceremony in Cebu City years back.
The governor was then the congressman of the First District of Bohol.
Last Friday, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan expressed in a resolution the Boholanos’ deep sorrow and extended condolences to the Roman Catholic Church, thru Tagbilaran Bishop Alberto Uy, and the bereaved family of the late cardinal. (Ven rebo Arigo)