Enrique San Pedro
Bishop Enrique San Pedro, S.J. (born Enrique San Pedro y Fonaguera on March 9, 1928 in Havana, Cuba - July 17, 1994 in Miami, Florida USA) was a Jesuit missionary and the fourth Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville and is presently in the process of being beatified.
Bishop San Pedro was the second child and oldest son of María Antonia Fornaguera and Enrique San Pedro y Xiques. His siblings were: Silvia, Berta and Javier San Pedro y Fornaguera.
He studied at Colegio de Belén and entered the novitiate of the Jesuits at Escuela Apostólica y Seminario Menor, en Sagua la Grande. He became a novitiate of the Jesuits on December 7, 1941 in Cienfuegos.
After two years of novitiate, he underwent four years of classical (Greek and Latin) studies in Havana and in Salamanca. These studies were followed by three years of Philosophy at Comillas Pontifical University in Spain. He was sent to Manila to study Mandarin, Tagalog and Vietnamese. He also taught social sciences and Latin at the Jesuit school in the Philippines. Mons. San Pedro also studied theology in Baguio, Philippines. Bishop San Pedro was ordained a priest on March 18, 1957. He continued his studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and received his doctorate in sacred scripture from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
He then went to Vietnam and taught classes at Pius X Pontifical College in Dalat. He also worked at the Student Center of St. Francisco Javier in Hue, Vietnam. In March 1975, he was expelled by the communists government.
He then came to Miami to visit his parents and stayed as assistant pastor at St. Raymond’s Church and taught classes at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School on and off from 1977 to 1986. He also taught at St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida and at the Jesuit seminary in the Dominican Republic (1976-1977). He again requested to his Jesuit superiors to be sent as a missionary and was sent to Suva, Fiji Islands (1978-1980).
On April 1, 1986, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and Titular Bishop of Siccesi and on June 29, 1986 he was ordained Bishop. His principal consecrator was Mons. Joseph Anthony Fiorenza, Archbishop the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and his co-consecrators were Archbishop Edward Anthony McCarthy and Bishop Agustin Roman, both of the Archdiocese of Miami.
Bishop San Pedro was appointed on August 13, 1991 as the Coadjutor Bishop of Brownsville, Texas. He was installed as bishop on September 26, 1991 and on November 30, 1991, he succeeded as the fourth Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville. His motto was is taken from II Corinthians, I2, 15: Libentissime impendam et super impendar (Most gladly I will spend myself and be spent for your sakes).
In Brownsville, Texas, the diocese named its homeless shelter after him, The Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center. He is buried at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Miami.
