Adolfo Tito Yllana

Adolfo Tito Yllana was born on 6 February 1948 in Naga City, Philippines. He is a Roman Catholic archbishop, and is presently the Apostolic Nuncio to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He undertook religious studies from the Holy Rosary Seminary also in the same city. On 19 March 1972 he was ordained a priest for the archdiocese of Nueva Caceres. He went on to obtain a doctorate in Civil and Canon Law from Lateran University in Rome. He started his diplomatic career after finishing his studies at the Academia Ecclesiastica, the premier academy for the diplomatic corps in the Vatican. His first diplomatic posts were in Ghana, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Lebanon, Hungary and Taiwan.

On 13 December 2001 he was appointed titular archbishop of Montecorvino and Apostolic Nuncio to Papua New Guinea. Pope John Paul II conferred episcopal ordination on him on 6 January 2002, at the patriachal Basilica of Saint Peter at the Vatican.^[1]

The Coat-of-Arms of Archbishop Yllana was designed by Cardinal Andrea de Montezemolo. The colors in the four parts indicate the faith (blue) as the beginning of grace coming from God and pervades everything, to which the human will responds to (silver) in the practice of the virtues.

• The star indicates the light of sanctifying grace;
• The rose represents the Virgin Mary, mother and help of all Christians (here the rose represents Our Lady of Peñafrancia, the patroness of the Bicol region, to whom the archbishop-elect, just like every Bicolano, has a special devotion and attachment);
• The undulating waves indicate water, which penetrates everywhere it passes making life flourish, as the pastoral work of the archbishop-elect is indicated in the motto "to Preach (proclaim the Gospel, announce the Good News or evangelize) and to Serve".
• The book indicates the Gospel, as the word of God, which inspires, teaches and guides every action of life, be it in evangelizing as in serving.

He was appointed apostolic nuncio to Pakistan on 31 March 2006.^[2]

In November 2007, Archbishop Yllana joined in the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Lahore with a special message from Pope Benedict XVI to the local congregation.^[3]

On 21 September 2009, Archbishop Yllana presided at the ordination in St. Joseph's Cathedral, of the new coadjutor bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Bishop Rufin Anthony. More than 1,500 people attended the event.^[4]

On 17 April 2010 the diocese of Faisalabad organized a special ceremony to celebrate its golden jubilee. Archbishop Yllana, Bishop Joseph Coutts (Faisalabad), Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha (Lahore), and Bishop Andrew Francis (Multan) spoke on the occasion.^[5] At the jubilee mass at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul attended by about 5,000 Catholics from 21 parishes, Archbishop Yllana said that the Vatican was happy to see the number of priestly and religious vocations in the diocese. ^[6]

According to a story appearing online at the ZENIT website, on Saturday, November 20, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Yllana as the Apostolic Nuncio to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Archbishop Yllana succeeds Archbishop Giovanni d'Aniello as Apostolic Nuncio there; Archbishop d'Aniello had been named by Pope Benedict as Apostolic Nuncio to Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos on September 22, 2010.

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