PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Bishop Efren Esmilla followed a path from his homeland in the Philippines to his divine destiny in Philadelphia.
In March 2024, he started serving as one of the newest auxiliary bishops and the first bishop of Filipino descent in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
"It's not only the Filipinos that have been so happy about that, but even the other communities," Esmilla said.
Esmilla's path to Philadelphia started in Nagcarlan, in Laguna province.
That's where, as a young man, his cousin gifted him a medal of St. John Neumann of Philadelphia who had just been canonized in 1977.
Esmilla wore that metal in devotion to St. John Neumann, noting that "God works in mysterious ways."
Years later, he headed to the Philadelphia region where he studied the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo in Wynnewood.
After that, he served more than 30 years as a priest in South Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, Wallingford, Delaware County and Montgomery County before Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop in December 2023.
He adds diversity to the catholic church at one of its highest levels and can speak several languages, including Spanish, Tagalog, Portuguese and Latin.
When speaking about the importance of diversity in the church, he called on the words of Pope Francis who said diversity in the church must be embraced, not feared.
Esmilla said he wholeheartedly embraced the pope's words and added, "With the cultures that we have, the joy that we have, the church would be alive."
Throughout Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, KYW Newsradio is celebrating the contributions of these diverse and essential communities with an audio series called “Asian Americans Making Their Mark.”