Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez (born 11 July 1948) is a

Cuban Cuban may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban citizen, a perso ...

prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

who has served as Archbishop of Havana since 26 April 2016. He previously served as an Auxiliary Bishop of Camagüey from 1997 to 2002 and then as Archbishop of that diocese from 2002 to 2016. He is a past president of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

raised him to the rank of

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 ...

on 5 October 2019.

Biography

He was born in

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 321,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by S ...

on 11 July 1948. He was a member of the first group of Cuban priests to be educated entirely in Cuba. He studied at Saint Basil the Great Seminary in El Cobre,

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

, and then at Saints Charles and Ambrose Seminary (now the Father Felix Varela Cultural Center) in Havana. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

a priest on 25 January 1972. In the years after his ordination he worked in parishes that are now part of the Ciego de Ávila Diocese. In March 1997 he was named auxiliary bishop of Camagüey and was consecrated bishop in Camagüey's Our Lady of Mercy Church on 7 June 1997 by Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, the Bishop of Camagüey. He chose as his episcopal motto "Go and announce the Gospel". Camagüey became an archdiocese in late 1998 and he was named to succeed Herrera as Archbishop in February 2002. He developed evangelization programs in which grandparents, who still remembered their education in Catholicism as children, taught the principles of Catholicism to their grandchildren. He also, with government permission, established prison ministries. García Rodríguez was the president of the First National Missions Assembly in Havana in 2006. He was elected president of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2006 and served until 2010. He represented Cuba at the fifth general assembly of Latin American and Caribbean bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007, which ended with the promulgation of the Declaration of Aparecida drafted by Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires (later Pope Francis). The Vatican named him a member of the

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (''Justitia et Pax'') was a pontifical council of the Roman Curia dedicated to "action-oriented studies" for the international promotion of justice, peace, and human rights from the perspective of the ...

in February 2007. He participated in the 2014 sessions of the Synod on the Family. On 26 April 2016,

named him Archbishop of Havana to succeed Cardinal

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 ...

. '' Granma'', the newspaper of the

Communist Party of Cuba The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26t ...

, reported his appointment. He was installed on 22 May. On 5 October 2019, Pope Francis made him

Cardinal-Priest A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Col ...

of Santi Aquila e Priscilla. He was made a member of the

Congregation for the Clergy The Dicastery for the Clergy, formerly named Congregation for the Clergy (; formerly the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy and Sacred Congregation of the Council), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia responsible for overseeing matters regardin ...

on 21 February 2020 and of the

Pontifical Commission for Latin America The Pontifical Commission for Latin America is a department of the Roman Curia that since 1958 has been charged with providing assistance to and examining matters pertaining to the Catholic Church in Latin America. The Commission operates under th ...

on 20 April 2020.

References

External links

Official Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Rodriguez, Juan 1948 births Living people Roman Catholic archbishops of Havana Cuban cardinals 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Cuba 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Cuba Cardinals created by Pope Francis People from Camagüey Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II Roman Catholic bishops of Camagüey Roman Catholic archbishops of Camagüey Cuban Roman Catholic bishops

Biography

See also

References

External links