Pope Leo XIV appointed Mons. Franklin Misael Betancourt, priest of the Diocese of Ipiales and until now a trainer at the Los Sagrados Corazones de Jesús y María de Pasto Major Seminary, as the new Bishop of Tumaco (Colombia).
“It is a beautiful cross that God has entrusted to my poor and unworthy human frailty. I thank God because he has placed his gaze and his heart on the clergy of the diocese of Ipiales and called me to the ministry of the episcopate,” said the bishop-elect in press conference held in Ipiales this morning.
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“From the moment I said my generous yes to God, I have placed the beloved diocese of Tumaco in my mind and in my heart,” he shared.
After noting that he has been thinking a lot about the priests, the poor, the elderly and the sick of Tumaco, the new bishop of the diocese that is on the border with Ecuador said: “I understand and understand the poor because I come from the poor, I was born among the poor and I have touched poverty, and I am not ashamed of being poor.”
“I was not ordained a priest or now a bishop to be financially rich, I was ordained to assume the lifestyle of Jesus, which is the lifestyle of poverty, because the poor put all their trust in the Lord,” he said.
The importance of sport in the life of the new bishop
The new prelate also highlighted that “sport has been an important part of my life, and I have not left it since I have been in the seminary, and wherever I go I follow my athletic route.”
After pointing out that he is already thinking about what his running route will be in Tumaco, Bishop Betancourt highlighted that “jogging and playing sports is also another way to evangelize and invite young people to practice sports.”
“Sport is very important, sport forms us, sport makes us disciplined, sport gives us health, sport integrates us as a community, it is very important, sport keeps us away from drugs, it keeps us away from vices,” he highlighted.
Who is the new Bishop of Tumaco in Colombia?
Franklin Misael Betancourt is the new Bishop of Tumaco in Colombia, born on October 30, 1967 in Guaitarilla, Diocese of Ipiales. He is 57 years old.
He studied Philosophy and Theology at the Major Seminary of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Pasto and at the Pontifical Javeriana University, and obtained a Licentiate in Moral Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He was ordained a priest on November 10, 1996.
He served as parish priest of several parishes, especially in the emblematic Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Las Lajas, and episcopal vicar for consecrated life. He was a trainer at the Nuestra Señora de la Paz Binational Major Seminary in Tulcán.
He has a specialization in Pedagogy and Ethics at the Juan de Castellanos University of Tunja.
The Diocese of Tumaco is suffragan (dependent) of the Archdiocese of Popayán. It includes the municipalities of Barbacoas, El Charco, Francisco Pizarro, La Tola, Magui, Mosquera, Olaya Herrera, Roberto Payán and Tumaco. It borders the Pacific Ocean and Ecuador, according to the Episcopal Conference of Colombia (CEC).
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.