Manuel Hilario de Céspedes y García Menocal (born 11 March 1944) was the

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 Matanzas The Diocese of Matanzas is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Cuba. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana. The diocese was e ...

from 2005 to 2022. He studied for the priesthood in Venezuela and filled pastoral assignments there for twelve years before returning to his native Cuba, where he worked in the Diocese of Pinar del Rio until being appointed bishop.

Biography

De Céspedes was born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba, on 11 March 1944. He is the great-great grandson of

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo (18 April 1819, Bayamo, Spanish Cuba – 27 February 1874, San Lorenzo, Spanish Cuba) was a Cuban revolutionary hero and First President of Cuba in Arms in 1868. Cespedes, who was a plantation owner ...

, the first

president of Cuba The president of Cuba ( es, Presidente de Cuba), officially the president of the Republic of Cuba ( es, Presidente de la República de Cuba), is the head of state of Cuba. The office in its current form was established under the Constitution of ...

, and the grandnephew of

Mario García Menocal Aurelio Mario Gabriel Francisco García Menocal y Deop (December 17, 1866 – September 7, 1941) was the 3rd President of Cuba, serving from 1913 to 1921. His term as president saw Cuba's participation in World War I. Youth Born in Jagüey Gra ...

, the third. The Catholic writer and vicar general of the Archdiocese of Havana, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y García-Menocal, was his brother. He did his primary and secondary studies with the

Marist Brothers The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic religious institute of brothers. In 1817, St. Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from France, founded the Marist Brother ...

at La Vibora, a suburb of Havana and then immigrated to

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

where he received a doctorate in electrical engineering. In 1966, he entered the seminary for adult vocations in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pinar del Rio on 21 May 1972. He spent twelve years in the Archdiocese of Caracas and in 1984 returned to the Diocese of Pinar del Rio in Cuba. He worked as a parish priest there until 2002, when he became chancellor of the diocesan curia and then vicar general. He was also the assessor of the diocesan commission for culture and of the Catholic Center for Civic and religious training. He was appointed Bishop of Matanzas on 7 May 2005 and received his episcopal consecration on 4 June in the cathedral in Pinar del Rio from José Siro González Bacallao, Bishop of the

Pinar del Rio Pinar may refer to: * Pınar, Turkish feminine given name * Píñar, municipality located in the province of Granada, Spain * Pinar del Río, a city of Cuba * Pinar del Río Province, a province of Cuba * Pinar, Albania, village in Tirana County ...

, assisted by 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 ...

, Archbishop of

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

and

Pedro Meurice Estíu Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

, Archbishop of

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 ...

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. ...

accepted his resignation on 22 March 2022.

References

External links

* 1944 births 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Cuba Living people Roman Catholic bishops of Matanzas {{cuba-RC-bishop-stub