EL CENTRO — July is the traditional time priests are assigned to new parishes. This summer, 25 priests in the Imperial Valley have been moved, 75% of the total serving in that region. The arrivals and departures are rippling across the small-town communities they serve.
The Imperial Valley’s largest parish, Our Lady of the Valley (OLOV) in El Centro, welcomed Msgr. Francisco “Jun” Cinco III as its parish administrator. The parish’s pastor, Father Mark Edney, began a one-year sabbatical. Father Pedro Lucia Reyes moved in as associate pastor as Father Ed Horning moved to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in his hometown of Lakeside. The parish also eagerly awaits the return of its second associate pastor, Father Kizito Uzoma Ndugbu, from Africa.
Msgr. Cinco comes to the Imperial Valley from St. Michael Catholic Church, in the Paradise Hills neighborhood of San Diego, after having served there for six years. The Southern Cross invited him to share a bit about himself and his service.
Question: Can you tell us about yourself?
Answer: I was born on March 7 and grew up in the Philippines. I studied from elementary until university in the Philippines. After a year of practice in my clinical profession
