site.btaNew Bishop Rumen Stanev of Sofia–Plovdiv Diocese Is Ordained

The newly appointed bishop of the Sofia–Plovdiv Diocese, Monsignor Rumen Stanev, will be ordained on Saturday at a divine liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Ludwig in Plovdiv.

On January 7, Pope Leo XIV appointed him bishop of the diocese. For the occasion, Cardinal Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade, Archbishop Aurel Perca of Bucharest, Bishop Kiro Stojanov of Skopje, Monsignor Michel Aoun of Lebanon, guests from the Vatican are arriving in Plovdiv. Representatives of Plovdiv’s municipal authorities, ambassadors, and members of the business community will be present at the cathedral. Among the invited guests are members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), the Muslim denomination, and the Armenian Church.

Taking part in the divine liturgy will be the Apostolic Nuncio to Bulgaria Luciano Suriani, Georgi Yovchev, the outgoing Bishop of the Sofia–Plovdiv Diocese, Bishop Strahil Kavalenov of the Diocese of Nicopolis, Bishop Petko Valov for Catholics of the Byzantine-Slavic rite, and honorary bishop Christo Proykov.

At the beginning of the service, the papal decision appointing Rumen Stanev as bishop will be read in Bulgarian. Outgoing bishop Georgi Yovchev will hand over the the bishop’s crozier through the Apostolic Nuncio to the new bishop. By taking his seat at the cathedra, he will symbolically assume episcopal authority over the diocese. After that, various representatives, priests, monks, nuns, and representatives of the laity, will greet him, thereby symbolically acknowledging his ministry and authority.

Monsignor Rumen Stanev was born on August 19, 1973 in Kaloyanovo, Plovdiv Region, into a Catholic family. He studied to be a priest at the seminary in Rome and graduated with a degree in theology from the Pontifical Urban University. Stanev has been the chairman of Caritas Vitania since the organization's founding and he is the Secretary General of the Interritual Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church in Bulgaria. In 2020, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of the Sofia-Plovdiv Diocese. Since 2020, he has been elected President of Caritas Bulgaria. He was ordained a bishop on January 17, 2021.

The Sofia-Plovdiv Diocese is the largest of the three Catholic dioceses in Bulgaria with over 25,000 Catholics.