Antonio María Rouco Varela

Styles of Antonio Cardinal Rouco Varela

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Madrid

Antonio María Cardinal Rouco Varela (born 24 August 1936) is a cardinal and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Madrid, Spain.

Born in Villalba, Spain, Rouco Varela studied theology at the Pontifical University of Salamanca from 1954 to 1958. He was ordained as a priest in 1959, and then studied law and theology at the University of Munich, earning a doctorate in 1964 with a dissertation on church-state relations in 16th Century Spain.

He held a series of academic posts, teaching fundamental theology, canon law, and ecclesiastical law at the seminary of Mondoñedo, and the University of Munich. In 1976 he was appointed titular Bishop of Gergi and Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago de Compostela. Named Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela in 1984, he played a key role in the hosting of the 4th World Youth Day in 1989. Five years later, in 1994, he was named Archbishop of Madrid.

Pope John Paul II created and proclaimed Rouco Varela as a cardinal in the consistory of 21 February 1998, with the title of Cardinal Priest of S. Lorenzo in Damaso. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.