Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga
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| Styles of Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Tegucigalpa |
His Eminence Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, SDB, (born December 29, 1942) is a Honduran prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the current Archbishop of Tegucigalpa and was President of the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) from 1995 to 1999. Maradiaga was elevated to the cardinalate in 2001.
[edit] Biography
He was born in Tegucigalpa in Honduras, the third of the four children of Andrés Rodríguez Palacios and Raquel Maradiaga. As a boy, he dreamed of playing the saxophone in a dance band or becoming a pilot. Instead, he entered the religious life, and joined the Salesians on May 3, 1961. He earned doctorates in philosophy from the Institute "Don Rua" in El Salvador, in theology from the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, and moral theology from the Pontifical Lateran University. From the Austrian University of Innsbruck Maradiaga received a diploma in clinical psychology and psychotherapy.
He was ordained a priest on July 28, 1970, by Archbishop Girolam Prigione in Guatemala City. Father Maradiaga was named the bishop's assistant in Tegucigalpa in the same year. He was rector for three years at Guatemala's Francisco Marroquín University from 1975. He then taught chemistry, physics, and music at Salesian colleges in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala over the next fifteen years. During this time he also became a professor of moral theology and ecclesiology at the Salesian Theological Institute in Guatemala.
On October 28, 1978, Maradiaga was named auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa and titular bishop of Pudentiana. He received episcopal consecration on the following December 8 from Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo Higuera, with Arhchbishops Héctor Santos Hernández and Miguel Obando y Bravo serving as co-consecrators. Maradiaga was appointed Archbishop of Tegucigalpa on January 8, 1993.
Archbishop Maradiaga was created Cardinal Priest of S. Maria della Speranza by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of February 21, 2001. He is the first cardinal from Honduras.
Widely viewed as a moderate, he is considered a rising star of the Latin American Church. His campaign for human rights and the poor have won widespread praise. Cardinal Rodríguez is further admired as a dynamic pastor who brokered peace accords with rebels and led rebuilding efforts after a natural disaster. He is an outspoken proponent for the cancellation of Third World debt.
In addition to his episcopal duties, he is currently the President of the Episcopal Conference of Honduras. Rodríguez was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
[edit] Trivia
- He was considered by some to be a possible successor Pope John Paul II, but reportedly got only two votes in the first ballot.
- He is trained in classical piano, and did studies in music in El Salvador, Guatemala, and the United States.
- Multilingual, he speaks English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese in addition to his native Spanish.
