Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

Bernardino Piñera Carvallo (22 September 1915 – 21 June 2020) was a Chilean bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.

Life

Born in

Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, Piñera was ordained a priest on 5 April 1947. He worked for the

Catholic Action Catholic Action is the name of groups of lay Catholics who advocate for increased Catholic influence on society. They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, I ...

. On 11 February 1958, Pope Pius XII appointed Piñera Carvallo auxiliary bishop of

Talca Talca () is a city and commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the city had a population of 201,142. The city is an importan ...

. Later, he was appointed Bishop of Temuco (1960–77) and Archbishop of La Serena (1983–90). From 1983 to 1988, he was president of the Episcopal Conference of Chile. Piñera Carvallo attended the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

from 1962 to 1965. He was the paternal uncle of

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

, the president of Chile.

Vatican sex abuse investigation

On 21 August 2019, Chile's nuncio

Ivo Scapolo Ivo Scapolo (born 24 July 1953) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1984, and has served as nuncio in Bolivia, Rwanda, Chile and Portugal. He has been an archbishop since 20 ...

announced that the Vatican had launched an investigation into claims that Piñera sexually abused at least one child 50 years earlier. No charges were ever filed, however.

Death

Msgr Piñera died in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

on 21 June 2020, aged 104. Piñera had contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

a month earlier during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Chile The worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 () severely affected Chile. The virus was confirmed to have reached Chile on 3 March 2020. Initial cases had been imported from So ...

. Although the government initially denied the disease to be the cause of death, the certificate issued by the Civil Registry and Identification Service indicates "pneumonia due to COVID-19" as the cause. At the time of his death, he was the oldest Catholic bishop in the world, and the last surviving bishop appointed by Pius XII.

References

External links

Catholic Hierarchy
1915 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Chile French emigrants to Chile 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Chile Clergy from Paris Bernardino Participants in the Second Vatican Council Chilean centenarians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile Men centenarians Roman Catholic bishops of Temuco Roman Catholic archbishops of La Serena Roman Catholic bishops of Talca {{Chile-RC-archbishop-stub