Mario José Serra (March 12, 1926 – July 9, 2005) was a

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

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 ...

. He served as auxiliary bishop of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

from 1975 till 2002.

Life

Born in

, Serra 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 ...

to the priesthood on December 4, 1949. On May 28, 1975, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of

and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''Mentesa''. Serra received his

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

on the following August 8 from

Juan Carlos Aramburu Juan Carlos Aramburu (February 11, 1912 – November 18, 2004) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 1975 to 1990, and was named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Paul VI in 1976. Biography Aramburu was born in rura ...

, archbishop of Buenos Aires, who would later become a

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 ...

, with the archbishop of Santa Fe,

Vicente Faustino Zazpe Monsignor Vicente Faustino Zazpe Zarategi (15 February 1920 – 24 January 1984) was an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church of Argentina. Zazpe (also sometimes spelled ''Zaspe'') was born to Spanish Navarre immigrants in Santa Fe. He attended ...

, and the bishop of Mar del Plata,

Eduardo Francisco Pironio Eduardo Francisco Pironio (3 December 1920 – 5 February 1998) was an Argentine Roman Catholic cardinal who served in numerous departments of the Roman Curia from 1975 to 1996. He was named Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina-Poggio in 1995. On 30 Ju ...

, who would later become a

, 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, ...

. On February 8, 2002

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

accepted his retirement, on grounds of his age. He died on July 9, 2005.

References

External links

Entry about Mario José Serra at ''catholic-hierarchy.org''
1926 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Argentina 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Argentina Roman Catholic bishops of Buenos Aires {{Argentina-RC-bishop-stub