His Excellency Excellency is an honorific style (manner of address), style given to certain high-level officers of a sovereign state, officials of an international organization, or members of an aristocracy. Once entitled to the title "Excellency", the holder ...

The Most Reverend The Most Reverend (abbreviated as The Most Revd or The Most Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. It is a variant of the mor ...

Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

. Dom. Gregório Leozírio Ben Lâmed da Paixão Neto, O.S.B.(born 3 November 1964) is a Brazilian prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He is a professed Benedictine monk. He has been appointed as Metropolitan Archbishop of

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

on 11 October 2023. He was previously the Bishop of Petrópolis (2012-2023) and Auxiliary Bishop of São Salvador da Bahia (2006-2012).

Biography

Dom. Gregório Leozírio Ben Lâmed da Paixão Neto was born in Aracaju, Brazil, on 3 November 1964. He attended the Benedictine monastery in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, He carried out his studies in philosophy and theology. In 1986 he gave his religious vows as the Benedictine monk, and in March 1993 he was ordained priest. He holds a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology from

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

in Amsterdam,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He has served as Master of novices and prior of the Benedictine Monastery of Bahia; Director of the Colégio São Bento in Salvador-BA; Professor and director of the São Bento Faculty in Salvador-BA; Member of the Economic Board of the archdiocese of São Salvador da Bahia. On 7 June 2006 he was appointed titular bishop of Fico and auxiliary of São Salvador da Bahia by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

, and received episcopal ordination on 29 July 2006. On 10 October 2012 he was transferred to Petrópolis as bishop. On 11 October 2023, Pope Francis named him as metropolitan archbishop of Fortaleza. His installation will be held in December 2023.

References

{{Reflist 1964 births Living people People from Aracaju Brazilian Roman Catholic archbishops Pontifical Gregorian University alumni