Leo XIV Appoints Pro-Contraception Bishop in the Philippines

On 24 January, Pope Leo XIV appointed Rev. Cyril Buhayan Villareal as the new Bishop of Kalibo in the Philippines. CatholicCulture.org has reported critically on his theological positions regarding sexual morality on January 26.
Born in 1974, Villareal was ordained a priest in 2001 and has served as a seminary instructor (2012–16), cathedral rector (2016–18), vicar general (2016–21), diocesan administrator (2021–23) and pastor (since 2023).
In his 2011 theological master's thesis submitted at the University of Vienna, Austria, Monsignor Villareal showed sympathy towards revisionist arguments that question the Church's teaching on contraception.
First, Villareal acknowledges that the Church's teaching "establishes a close bond between sexuality and procreation, linking the two in matrimony".
He straightforwardly affirms God’s design of sexuality: "The Church judges the morality of the sexual act based on whether it is separable or inseparable from the unitive and procreative significance …More