Name Jorge Urosa Appointed September 19, 2005 Province Caracas | Consecration September 22, 1982 Installed 5 November 2005 Ordination August 15, 1967 Created cardinal March 24, 2006 | |
 | ||
Other posts Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria al Monti Birth name Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino Education Pontifical Gregorian University (1971), St. Augustine's Seminary (1962–1965) | ||
Jorge (Liberato) Urosa (y Savino) (born August 28, 1942) is a Venezuelan Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Archbishop of Caracas, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2006.
Contents
- Early life and ordination
- Professor
- Bishop
- Cardinal
- Reformed Catholic Church
- Holy Mass and politics
- References
Early life and ordination
Jorge Urosa was born in Caracas to Luis Manuel Urosa Joud and Ligia Savino del Castillo de Urosa. He studied humanities at Colegio De La Salle Tienda Honda, and philosophy at the Interdiocesan Seminary of Caracas. From 1962 to 1965, he studied theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto.
Urosa then attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he obtained his doctorate in dogmatic theology, until 1971. During his time at the Gregorian, he returned to Caracas to be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal José Quintero Parra on August 15, 1967.
Professor
After concluding his Roman studies in at the Pius Latin American Pontifical College, Urosa then served as a professor and the rector of the Seminary San José in Caracas. He later served as rector of the Interdiocesan Seminary in Caracas as well. Before becoming vicar general of the Archdiocese of Caracas, he was President of the Organization of Latin American Seminaries and founded a parochial vicariate in a chabolas neighborhood of Caracas.
Bishop
On July 6, 1982, Urosa was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Caracas and Titular Bishop of Vegesela in Byzacena by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 22 from Archbishop José Lebrún Moratinos, with Archbishops Domingo Roa Pérez and Miguel Salas Salas, CIM, serving as co-consecrators. Urosa was later named Archbishop of Valencia on March 16, 1990, and Archbishop of Caracas on September 19, 2005.
He was also elected as the second Vice-President of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference on January 10, 2006.
Cardinal
Pope Benedict XVI created him Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria ai Monti in the consistory of March 24, 2006. Urosa is only the fifth member of the College of Cardinals to hail from Venezuela, and remains eligible to participate in any future papal conclave until his eightieth birthday on August 28, 2022.
Besides his native Spanish, the Cardinal also speaks English, Italian, French, and Latin.
As of October 2011, presumably because he is the Cardinal Archbishop of Caracas, he is also the President "Ad Honorem" (Honorary President) of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference.
He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that selected Pope Francis.
Reformed Catholic Church
Cardinal Urosa rejected the creation of the Reformed Catholic Church (Anglican) in Venezuela, whose representatives were introduced in July 2008, as in line with the Bolivarian socialism of President Hugo Chávez. He branded the group as "an irregular association".
Holy Mass and politics
Cardinal Urosa Savino of Caracas, and his auxiliary bishops, have warned against using the Mass for political purposes and declared that the Mass at which a blessing was given to the President-elect of Paraguay, former bishop Fernando Lugo, was not authorized by the archdiocese.