José María Caro Rodríguez (June 23, 1866 – December 4, 1958) was a Chilean

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 ...

of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Santiago from 1939 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

Biography

Early life and ordination

José María Caro was born in Los Valles, San Fernando department, in current Pichilemu commune, as the fourth of the nine children of José María Caro Martínez, former Mayor of Pichilemu, and his wife Rita Rodríguez Cornejo. After attending a local school, he entered the seminary in Santiago in 1881. Caro then went to Rome in 1887, studying at the Pontifical Collegio Pio-Latinoamericano and the Pontifical Gregorian University until 1891. Ordained to the priesthood on December 20, 1890, he returned to Chile in October 1891 and then taught preparatory studies and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the Santiago seminary.

Pastoral work

Caro carried out his

pastoral ministry A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

in several

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

cies,

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

s and

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, also serving as pastor of Mamiña from March to December 1899. He returned to the seminary in 1900 as Professor of Theology.

Bishop

Appointed Apostolic Vicar of Tarapacá on May 6, 1911, Caro was made Titular Bishop of ''Mylasa'' in association with the vicariate on January 5, 1912. He received his episcopal consecration on the following April 28 from Archbishop Enrico Sibilia, with Bishops Luis Izquierdo Vargas and

Miguel Claro Vásquez --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disambi ...

serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

, in the

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

cathedral of Santiago. Caro was later named Bishop of La Serena on December 14, 1925, and was advanced to the rank of

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

upon his diocese's elevation on May 20, 1939. On August 28 of that same year,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

made him Archbishop of Santiago. As a bishop, Caro was strongly opposed to the influence of Freemasonry in modern society and wrote several anti-Masonic pamphlets, one of the best known being ''The Mystery of Freemasonry Unveiled''.Mystery of Freemasonry unveiled
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Cardinal

He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Maria della Scala by Pius XII in the consistory of February 18, 1946. Caro, the first Chilean member of the College of Cardinals, served as

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...

to the Chilean Plenary Council on September 8, 1946, tenth National Eucharistic Congress on September 26, 1951, and later to the sixth Interamerican Congress of Catholic Education on August 30, 1956. Before participating in the

1958 papal conclave The 1958 papal conclave occurred following the death of Pope Pius XII on 9 October 1958. The College of Cardinals met from 25 to 28 October and on the eleventh ballot elected Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Patriarch of Venice as the new pope. ...

, Caro attended the first general conference of the Latin American Episcopal Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1955.

Death

Caro died in Santiago, at age 92, as the eldest member of the College of Cardinals. He was initially buried in the archiepiscopal

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

of the Santiago Cathedral, but his remains were moved to a funeral chapel at the back of the cathedral's central nave on March 19, 1968.

References

External links

Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caro, Jose Maria 1866 births 1958 deaths Chilean cardinals Chilean people of Basque descent 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Chile People from Pichilemu Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII Roman Catholic archbishops of Santiago de Chile Catholicism and Freemasonry Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Jose Maria, Jr. Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Roman Catholic bishops of Iquique Roman Catholic archbishops of La Serena