MANILA, March 18, 2009—Papal nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, will be visiting the Diocese of Balanga for the first time on Thursday, March 19.

Archbishop Adams will meet Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas and will also take part in the Eucharistic celebration for the feast of Balanga town’s patron, St Joseph.

The archbishop is the official representative to the Philippines of Pope Benedict XVI, and it is in this capacity that he is paying a “pastoral visit” to the different dioceses in the country.

Archbishop Adams is also scheduled to deliver a talk during a program organized by the local government of Balanga to be held at the Mt. Samat Shrine.

The Pope’s envoy will then proceed to the diocese’s “Bahay Pari” where Bishop Villegas resides and the priests come together regularly for fraternal activities.

Villegas, who has been bishop of Balanga for almost five years now, is currently at the forefront in the campaign against the revival of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in Morong, Bataan.

A source said Villegas might also discuss with the papal nuncio their position against and the circumstances surrounding the BNPP controversy.

The bishop earlier said the proposed $1 billion budget that would be used to rehabilitate the power plant might just be another source of graft and corruption.

He stressed that the project has been paid from the taxes of the people yet they never benefited from it.

Villegas said that only those who want to amass wealth and power would benefit from the project and not the people. (Roy Lagarde)