Jorge Enrique Serpa Perez (born March 16, 1942, in

Cienfuegos Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especial ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

) is the former

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pinar del Rio.

Life and ministry

When Serpa was a child his family moved to Havana. He studied en

El Buen Pastor Seminary EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

in Havana. In 1961, he went to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Serpa was ordained on July 14, 1968, in Belgium and assigned to the Archdiocese of Havana. From 1968 to 1999, the Cuban government would not allow him to return to Cuba and he was then translated to the Archdiocese of Bogotá in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. He was allowed to return to Cuba in 1999. From 2003 to 2007, he was the

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary is a seminary in Havana, Cuba. Building As a training center where prestigious Cuban intellectuals were educated before the foundation of the University of Havana, it was one of the most important buildings dur ...

. He was appointed by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

on December 13, 2006, to be Bishop of Pinar del Rio. He was consecrated on January 13, 2007, at the cathedral in Havana by

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino (18 October 1936 – 26 July 2019) was a Cuban prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Havana from 1981 to 2016. He was appointed to the College of Cardinals in 1994, the second Cuban to hold tha ...

, Archbishop of Havana, assisted by Cardinal

Pedro Rubiano Sáenz Pedro Rubiano Sáenz (born September 13, 1932) is a cardinal and Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Bogotá in the Roman Catholic Church. Early life and ordination Born in Cartago, Colombia, Rubiano Sáenz studied at the seminary in Popayán ...

, Archbishop of Bogotá, and by Bishop José Siro González Bacallo of Pinar del Río. He took possession of his diocese the following day, January 14, 2007.

References

External links

Agenzia Fides article

1942 births Living people People from Cienfuegos 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Cuba Roman Catholic bishops of Pinar del Río {{Cuba-RC-bishop-stub