José María Setién Alberro (18 March 1928 – 10 July 2018) was a Spanish Catholic prelate. He was

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

between 1972 and 1979, and bishop between 1979 and 2000.

Career

After the murder of the socialist Enrique Casas by

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

, María Setién prohibited having the funeral at the cathedral of San Sebastian. During the 1998 truce, he stated that the

Constitution of Spain The Spanish Constitution () is the Constitution, supreme law of the Spain, Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a 1978 Spanish constitutional referendum, constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the ...

must have the

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

of the

Basque people The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous to, and primarily i ...

. In the same year he offered himself to intercede for the politician prisoners.

John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

expressed to the

Episcopal Conference of Spain The Spanish Episcopal Conference (, ) is an administrative institution composed of all the bishops of the dioceses of Spain and Andorra, in communion with the Roman Pontiff and under his authority. Its purpose is the joint exercise certain pastor ...

he doesn't like it. Finally, the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

interceded on it in 2009 and he renounced for

health problem A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...

s. In 2007 he published ''Un obispo vasco ante ETA''. In 2003 he was awarded the Gold Medal of

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...

. He died on 10 July 2018 after suffering a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

at age 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Setien, Jose Maria 1928 births 2018 deaths People from Hernani 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Spain Academic staff of the University of Salamanca