Bishop Camacho’s birthday fundraiser aims to net $75K

Celebrating the life of the community’s spiritual leader, Bishop Tomas A. Camacho’s 75th Birthday Fundraising Dinner will be held on Sept. 18, 2008 at the Royal Taga Ballroom of the Saipan World Resort.

The event also celebrates the lives and people Bishop Camacho has touched in his 75 years as a son, brother, relative, priest and bishop.

Special guest of honor is Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of the Archdiocese of Manila. He will be the homilist for Bishop Camacho’s birthday Mass on Sept. 18, 2008, 5:30pm at Mount Carmel Cathedral.

Organizers of the fundraising event hopes to raise $75,000 for the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa. Tickets will be on sale for $75 per person.

In keeping with canon law, Bishop Camacho will offer his resignation to Pope Benedict VXI when he turns 75 this September. It is for the pope to decide where he wants Bishop Camacho to continue serving as Bishop of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, or whether he wants another one to serve the diocese.

Bishop Camacho was born in Sept. 18, 1933, to Vidal Palacios Camacho and Maria Aguon Camacho. He attended Fr. Duenas High School Minor Seminary in Guam and graduated in 1953.

He went to Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California for his Philosophy and Theology courses, graduating in 1961, and was ordained a priest June 14, 1961, at Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral in Guam by the late Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner.

Bishop Camacho served as Associate Pastor and Associate Pastor Guam and Rota parishes from 1961-1976, then was appointed as a Monsignor (Prelate of Honor) by Pope John Paul in 1974.

He was assigned back to his native Saipan as Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in 1976 and was consecrated as the first Bishop of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa on Jan. 13, 1985

Has translated most of the liturgical books and New Testament Bible into Chamorro. The Bible and the liturgical books are widely used and read in Chamorro liturgies in the CNMI, Guam and elsewhere.

Bishop Camacho just recently battled Stage 1 lung cancer and is currently recuperating.

For any more information about the upcoming fundraiser, contact committee chair Herbert Del Rosario at 234-5498 ext. 1110, or North Star managing editor Ding Polistico at 234-3000. You can also email Herbert at herbertr@nmcnet.edu or delrosarioherbert@yahoo.com and Ding at nstar@pticom.com.