Rafael Guízar Valencia

The Holy Rafael Guízar Valencia (* 26. April 1878 in Cotija , Michoacan , Mexico , † 6. June 1938 ) was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop of Veracruz-Jalapa in Mexico.

Life

Guízar Valencia was born in Cotija de la Paz in the Mexican state of Michoacan. He was the fourth of eleven children. His brother Antonio became Archbishop of Chihuahua . His nephew was Marcial Maciel , founder of the Legionaries of Christ . The ordination received Rafael Guízar at the age of 23 years in Zamora on 1 June 1901 and was initially Spiritual in the local seminary operates. There he taught dogmatics . Soon after, he was taken over by Pope Leo XIIIcalled to be an apostolic missionary and began missions in the villages of Mexico. He used a simple catechism that he had written himself.

On August 1, 1919, Pope Benedict XV appointed him . to the Bishop of Veracruz-Jalapa . He received the episcopal ordination in the Cuban capital by Archbishop Tito Trocci , the local apostolic nuncio . Co- consecrators were the Bishop of San Cristóbal de la Habana , Pedro Ladislao González y Estrada , and the Bishop of Camagüey , Valentín Manuel Zubizarreta y Unamunsaga OCD .

As a bishop, he took care of the seminary and re-established it in Xalapa. This later relocated to Mexico City due to the anti-clerical forces .

Guizar Valencia campaigned for the victims and their families during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917). In 1913 he served as a missionary to soldiers in Mexico City, Puebla and Morelos. He spoke out against the Mexican government, which wanted to limit the influence of the Catholic Church in Mexico. During the persecution of the Church, he was expelled from Mexico in May 1927 and first went into exile in the USA , later to Guatemala and finally to Cuba . There, too, he was missionary. He later returned to Mexico on short notice. However, he was soon forced to leave the country again. He missionized again in the USA, Cuba, Guatemala and Colombia.

Since 1951 a beatification process ran , on October 15, 2006 he was by Pope Benedict XVI. canonized .

Web links

Entry on Rafael Guízar Valencia on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

↑ Norbert Köster: "Many Mexican bishops are revolutionaries." The Vatican, the Cristiada and the Mexican episcopate. In: Silke Hensel, Hubert Wolf (ed.): The Catholic Church and violence. Europe and Latin America in the 20th century. Cologne u. a. 2013, pp. 191–203, here p. 191.

predecessor	Office	successor
Joaquín Acadio Pagaza y Ordóñez	Bishop of Veracruz-Jalapa 1919–1938	Manuel Pío López Estrada

personal data
SURNAME	Valencia, Rafael Guízar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman Catholic Bishop of Veracruz-Jalapa and saint
DATE OF BIRTH	April 26, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cotija , Michoacan , Mexico
DATE OF DEATH	June 6, 1938

[1] Norbert Köster: "Many Mexican bishops are revolutionaries." The Vatican, the Cristiada and the Mexican episcopate. In: Silke Hensel, Hubert Wolf (ed.): The Catholic Church and violence. Europe and Latin America in the 20th century. Cologne u. a. 2013, pp. 191–203, here p. 191.