José Siro González Bacallao (December 9, 1930 – July 19, 2021) was a Cuban

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

and

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

. He served as the Bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Pinar del Río The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pinar del Río (erected 20 February 1903) is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana, Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana seated in the city of Pinar del Río. Bishop ...

, based in the city of

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 191,081 (2022), it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños''. History Pinar del Río was ...

, from 1982 until 2006. He remained

bishop emeritus In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders and is responsible for teaching doctrine, governing Catholics in his jurisdiction, sanctifying the world and representing the c ...

until his death in 2021. González was born to a poor family on December 9, 1930, in the town of Candelaria,

Pinar del Río Province The Pinar del Río Province is one of the 15 provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba. The capital and largest city is Pinar del Río (191,081 pop. in 2022). Geography The Pinar del Río province is Cuba's westernmost p ...

(now located in present-day Artemisa Province since 2011). He enrolled in San Carlos y San Ambrosio seminary in Havana when he was just 12-years old to become a diocesan priest. He spent one year (1944–1945) at San Carlos y San Ambrosio before transferring to Seminario El Buen Pastor (Good Shephard Seminary), where he completed his training. He was ordained as a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

on February 28, 1945. He celebrated his first

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

on March 7, 1945, in Candelaria. He was appointed pastor of the San Juan y Martínez parish in 1957, where he served for a total of twenty-two years, including the period after the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

. With the ensuing crackdown on the Catholic Church by the new communist government, González was tasked by

Evelio Díaz-Cía Evelio Diaz-Cia (February 17, 1902 in San Cristóbal, Cuba, San Cristóbal, Pinar del Río, Cuba – July 21, 1984 in Havana, Cuba) was the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Havana. His parents were Arturo Díaz-Díaz and Francisca Cía-Lópe ...

, the then-Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Havana, with ministering to the remaining parishes in the eastern and central areas of the archdiocese. Beginning in 1966, González spent seven years as a Catholic priest in rural areas. He planted tobacco, beans, tubers, and rice in the new

collective farms Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member-o ...

. Pinar del Rio Bishop Jaime Ortega Alamino appointed him as vicar of the diocesan cathedral in 1979. He remained vicar until Pope John Paul II appointed him as Bishop of Pinar del Rio on May 16, 1982. Under Bishop González, the diocese constructed the Diocesan House Our Lady of Loreto and opened the Summer Schools for Catechists, the César Balbín Missionary Center in Candelaria, and a summer school for

catechists Catechesis (; from Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the r ...

. He also expanded the role of nuns and female religious orders for pastoral services in the Diocese of Pinar del Rio. Bacallao announced his resignation and retirement in November 2006 at the age of 77. He retired to the town of

Mantua, Cuba Mantua () is a municipality and town in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba. History It was founded in 1605 by Italian shipwrecked sailors as Mantua, Cuba. It was founded in 1719 under the name Guane del Norte. In 1866 it was established as a m ...

, where he lived for the rest of his life. González Bacallao died on July 19, 2021, at the age of 90. His funeral was held at the Cathedral of Pinar del Río with burial in the Pantheon of the Bishops of the Catholic Cemetery (''el Panteón de los Obispos del Cementerio Católico de la Alameda'') in Pinar del Río.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez Bacallao, Jose Siro 1930 births 2021 deaths Roman Catholic bishops of Pinar del Río Cuban Roman Catholic bishops People from Artemisa Province People from Pinar del Río Province People from Pinar del Río