José Octavio Ruiz Arenas

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José Octavio Ruiz Arenas, 2017

José Octavio Ruiz Arenas (born December 21, 1944 in Bogotá ) is a Colombian clergyman, retired Archbishop of Villavicencio and Curia Archbishop .

Life

José Octavio Ruiz Arenas was born to Octavio Ruiz and Mercedes Arenas in Bogotá and has eight siblings. The loss of his mother, who died when he was six years old, said he had a life-long impact. As an adolescent he entered the boys' seminary of the Archdiocese of Bogotá and continued his education at the local seminary . The Archbishop of Bogotá , Aníbal Muñoz Duque , ordained him a priest on November 29, 1969 . He spent his time as a chaplain in Soacha . From 1973 he worked as a lecturer at the Archbishop's College for Boys in Bogotá. At the same time he was the deputy pastor of the Egipto parish in Bogotá from 1974 to 1975 and in 1976 he became the economist of the Nuestra Señora de Las Aguas parish. From 1977 to 1979 he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome , where he obtained a licentiate and a doctorate in dogmatic theology . In 1980 he was appointed head of the boys' seminary in Bogotá and in 1981 switched to teaching at the archdiocese's seminary, where he taught until 1984. He then returned to Rome and worked from 1985 to 1996 at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop in Bogotá on March 8, 1996 and at the same time elevated him to titular bishop of Troyna . The Archbishop of Bogotá, Pedro Rubiano Sáenz , donated him episcopal ordination on April 13 of the same year ; Co-consecrators were Paolo Romeo , Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia, and Tarcisio Bertone , the then secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ruiz Arenas became chairman of the Archbishop's Faith Commission in 1999 and was the representative of the Colombian Bishops' Conference for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue .

On July 16, 2002 he was appointed Bishop of Villavicencio . With the elevation of the diocese to the archbishopric on July 3, 2004, he became Archbishop of Villavicencio.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him on May 31, 2007 as the successor to the suddenly deceased Mexican Archbishop Luis Robles Díaz as Vice-President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America . Ruiz Arenas was the second cleric himself from Latin America who, as an employee of the then President of the Commission Giovanni Cardinal Re, was responsible for coordinating the Vatican activities in Latin America. At the same time he was called to be a member of the Congregation for Bishops , to which the Latin America Commission is subordinate.

On May 13, 2011, he joined the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization and was appointed its secretary. On March 5, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him. also a member of the superior Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples . The memberships were confirmed or continued after Pope Francis took office in 2013.

As Archbishop in Villavicencio, Octavio Ruiz Arenas was considered the member of the Colombian episcopate that Pope Benedict XVI. closest personally and theologically. After Darío Castrillón Hoyos and Alfonso López Trujillo, he was the third Colombian to hold a leading position at the Roman Curia .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b newspaper article from May 31, 2007 (El Tiempo, Bogotá) , accessed on November 27, 2016.
  2. ↑ News from May 31, 2007 (ACIPrensa) , accessed on November 27, 2016.
  3. ^ Announcement by the Fides agency from March 5, 2012 , accessed on November 26, 2016.
predecessor Office successor
Alfonso Cabezas Aristizábal CM Bishop of Villavicencio
2002-2004 		---
--- Archbishop of Villavicencio
2004–2007 		Óscar Urbina Ortega
personal data
SURNAME Ruiz Arenas, José Octavio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruiz Arenas, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian clergyman, archbishop of the Curia
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Bogotá