Filipino bishop appointed archbishop of Agaña, Guam

Archbishop-elect Ryan P. Jimenez meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome. Photo from the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific

LOS ANGELES – Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Ryan P. Jimenez to lead the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Agaña in the US territory of Guam.

Jimenez, 52, will fill a seat left vacant by Archbishop Michael Byrnes, who resigned last year due to health reasons, the Archdiocese announced Saturday.

Byrnes had succeeded former Agaña Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who was removed from office after the Vatican found him guilty of sex crimes against children in 2019.

Jimenez has led the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, which covers the Northern Mariana Islands, since June 2016.

Archbishop-elect Jimenez is currently the president of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) and the vice president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania — which is made up of the bishops conferences of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and CEPAC.

He also serves as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.

More than 87 percent of Guam’s population identify as Catholic, according to 2022 statistics.

The installation of Archbishop-elect Jimenez will be held on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna, Guam.

Archbishop-elect Ryan P. Jimenez

Born and raised in Dumaguete, Philippines, Archbishop-elect Jimenez came to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as a migrant worker in 1995. He taught at Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja, a Catholic school on the island of Rota.

In 1999, he was accepted to the seminary program of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 8, 2003. In 2010, he was appointed apostolic administrator of Chalan Kanoa and, in 2016, as its second bishop.

Jimenez began his studies and formation for the priesthood at St. Joseph Seminary College in the Diocese of Dumaguete in the Philippines. He transferred to the college program of the Jesuit-run San Jose Seminary in Quezon City and later earned an undergraduate degree from the Ateneo de Manila University.

He also earned three advanced degrees from St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California.

In 2025, he expects to obtain a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University.