The Holy See announced Friday that Pope Leo XIV had accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Alejandro “Alex” Aclan after having reached the standard retirement age for bishops earlier this year.
Aclan had served as auxiliary bishop since 2019, and served as episcopal vicar for the archdiocese’s San Fernando Pastoral Region until suffering a stroke in August 2022 that required hospitalization and extensive recovery.
Soon after, Archbishop José H. Gomez named retired Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Wilkerson as interim episcopal vicar for the region. Bishop Albert Bahhuth, who was named an auxiliary bishop for Los Angeles by Pope Francis one year later, took over as episcopal vicar for the San Fernando Pastoral Region in fall of 2023.
Aclan submitted his letter of resignation to Pope Leo upon turning 75 on Feb. 9, 2026, as required for every bishop by canon law.
“Bishop Aclan has been a good faithful servant,” said Archbishop Gomez in a statement shared with Angelus Friday morning. “He loves the Lord and he loves the people entrusted to his care.
“He is a good friend and trusted adviser, and I know his life will continue to be beautiful and fruitful in his retirement.”
At the time in 2019, Aclan became just the second Filipino bishop in the United States, after Bishop Oscar Solis, who served as an auxiliary in Los Angeles from 2004 to 2017 before becoming the bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City.
Aclan was born in 1951 in the Philippines, where he originally studied to become a doctor before graduating in 1971 from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila with a degree in medical technology.
He worked in the Philippines until 1982, when he emigrated to the United States with his family, to California, where they lived in Covina.
After working for a bank, Aclan was 35 years old when he felt the call to the priesthood. He entered St. John’s Seminary in 1988 and was ordained a priest in 1993 at age 42.
Aclan served at St. Finbar Church in Burbank and St. John of God Church in Norwalk before being named pastor of St. Madeleine Church in Pomona in 2001, where he served for 11 years.
In 2011, he was named associate vicar for clergy by Archbishop Gomez, and in 2015 became vicar for clergy.
Despite the difficulties of his stroke recovery, Aclan still participated in Masses and celebrations, including the Sept. 2023 Ordination Mass for LA’s “quadruplet” auxiliary bishops — Bahhuth, Brian Nunes, Matthew Elshoff, and Slawomir Szkredka — and was an honoree at the 2024 St. John Seminary gala dinner.
