HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Mario Enrique Ríos Montt, C.M. (born March 17, 1932, in
Huehuetenango Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American Hi ...
, Guatemala) is an emeritus auxiliary bishop of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala The Archdiocese of Santiago de Guatemala is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Guatemala.Efraín Ríos Montt José Efraín Ríos Montt (; 16 June 1926 – 1 April 2018) was a Guatemalan military officer, politician, and dictator who served as ''de facto'' President of Guatemala from 1982 to 1983. His brief tenure as chief executive was one of the blo ...
, a dictator accused of genocide in Guatemala during the period when he was in power from March 1982 to August 1983.


Biography


Early years and political views

Mario Montt was born in Huehuetenango on 17 March 1932, in a large family of 13 children of a ruined rural merchant. Biographers of the family Rios Montt contrasted Mario Enrique to his elder brother José Efraín, saying that Efraín liked
map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...
s and military parades; Mario every morning went to
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 ...
and prayed after school with the priests. He entered in the
Pauline Fathers The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit (; abbreviated OSPPE), commonly called the Pauline Fathers, is a monastic order of the Catholic Church founded in Hungary during the 13th century. This name is derived from the hermit Saint Paul of Theb ...
and was ordained
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
on 12 July 1959. On 13 July 1974 Montt was appointed
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 Tiguala 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 ...
of
Escuintla Escuintla () is an industrial city in Guatemala, its land extension is 4,384 km2, and it is nationally known for its sugar agribusiness. Its capital is a municipality with the same name. Citizens celebrate from December 6 to 9 with a small f ...
by
Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
and was ordained bishop on 27 September of the same year by
Apostolic nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...
um Guatemala, Archbishop
Emanuele Gerada Emanuele Gerada KC*HS (18 May 1920 – 21 January 2011) was a Maltese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, a Vatican diplomat and titular Archbishop of Nomentum. One Maltese obituary recalled him as "a generous, well-read and intelligent man. ...
. His co-consecrators were the Bishop of
San Miguel San Miguel, Spanish for Saint Michael, may refer to: Places Argentina *San Miguel Partido *San Miguel, Buenos Aires * San Miguel, Catamarca * San Miguel, Corrientes * San Miguel, La Rioja *San Miguel Arcángel, a Volga German colony in Adolfo Al ...
,
José Eduardo Alvarez Ramírez José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...
, CM, and
Victor Hugo Martínez Contreras Víctor Hugo Martínez Contreras (29 March 1930 – 26 August 2020) was a Guatemalan Roman Catholic archbishop. Martínez Contreras was born in Guatemala and was ordained to the priesthood in 1956. He served as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Cathol ...
, Auxiliary Bishop of the
Huehuetenango Huehuetenango () is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American Hi ...
. Montt adopted the left-oriented liberation theology (which opposed him to his elder brother Efraín who converted himself to
evangelicalism Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
from Catholicism). He still supported anti-government political speeches of the Guatemalan Catholic Church - protests against repression, calls for active social policies and the fight against poverty.


Political confrontation with his brother

On March 23, 1982, as a result of a
military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
to power in Guatemala came the military junta, led by
Efraín Ríos Montt José Efraín Ríos Montt (; 16 June 1926 – 1 April 2018) was a Guatemalan military officer, politician, and dictator who served as ''de facto'' President of Guatemala from 1982 to 1983. His brief tenure as chief executive was one of the blo ...
, who took office as
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
. The regime of ultra-right dictatorship was established and a
civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
and political repression have reached unprecedented scale. At the same time, the ruling group was distinguished by a fanatical Protestant evangelism and was suspicious of the Catholic population. Under the Riosmontist regime, Mario Rios Montt publicly opposed the repressive policies of his elder brother. On the advice of the head of state, the titular bishop had to leave the country temporarily and move to Italy.


Bishop and human rights

After the change of power in August 1983, Montt returned to Guatemala and on March 3, 1984, resigned as prelate of Escuintla. On 24 January 1987 he was appointed
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. ...
of the Archdiocese of Guatemala and since 1998 he is the
Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...
of Pastoral of the same. On 26 April 1998 Bishop
Juan Gerardi ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippi ...
was assassinated, two days after publishing his report Guatemala: Never Again, where he presented evidence forty years of repression in that country: 200,000 Indians killed and one million exiled. Nine out of ten victims were unarmed, mostly indigenous, civilians. More than 90% of the crimes had been the responsibility of the Guatemalan State. Mario Enrique Ríos Montt took over in this year his duties in the Office of Human Rights of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHA) and became an influential and powerful opponent of his brother. Montt criticized the former military regimes for brutality and civil governments for corruption. In the socio-political aspect, Mario Enrique Rios Montt was the opponent of Jose Efraín Rios Montt. However, the brothers meet at family celebrations and communicate in a friendly manner, trying to avoid discussing politics.


Retirement

On October 2, 2010,
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 ...
accepted his resignation for reasons of age and on July 26, 2011, Montt was appointed
apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...
of the Vicariate of Izabal, where he replaced Bishop Gabriel Peñate Rodríguez till 9 February 2013.


References


External links


Catholic Hierarchy website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rios Montt, Mario Enrique Living people 1932 births 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Guatemala 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Guatemala 20th-century Roman Catholic titular bishops Guatemalan human rights activists Vincentian bishops People from Huehuetenango Department Liberation theologians Roman Catholic bishops of Escuintla