Roberto González Nieves

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For the Mexican race car driver, see Roberto Gonzalez.

Roberto Octavio González Nieves (born June 2, 1950) is a Puerto Rican leader of the Roman Catholic Church and is the current Archbishop of San Juan. Widely considered a moderate, González Nieves is viewed as a "rising star" in the Latin-American church.

1 Biography
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

While he was young, he and his family moved to Puerto Rico, settling in Santurce, a suburb of San Juan. González Nieves grew up in a Catholic family, and he always demonstrated interest in becoming involved with the Catholic Church. He attended a Catholic high school and, later on, went to Siena College, from which he graduated.

[edit] Priesthood

On May 8, 1977, Gonzalez Nieves became a priest, and, in 1982, he began to serve at St. Pius V in the Bronx, New York, before going to Holy Cross Church, also in the Bronx. In 1986, he was appointed pastor of that church. He remained there until 1988, when he was sent to Boston to work as the city's auxiliary bishop under Cardinal Archbishop Bernard Francis Law. In Boston, Bishop Gonzalez Nieves was popular in the Hispanic community.

In 1995, Gonzalez Nieves was relocated to Texas, where he served as coadjustor bishop of Corpus Christi until 1997, when he succeeded as bishop of the diocese. As in Boston, Gonzalez Nieves was very popular with the Hispanic community living in Corpus Christi.

[edit] Archbishop of San Juan

Styles of
Roberto González Nieves

Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	not applicable

On March 26, 1999, Gonzalez Nieves was appointed archbishop of San Juan by Pope John Paul II. He was installed as archbishop on May 8 in a ceremony that was attended by many of his friends from Corpus Christi, New York and Boston. Other people who attended included the then mayor of San Juan and future Governor of Puerto Rico Sila Calderon, former Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, as well as other Puerto Rican political figures.

The ceremony also marked the retirement of cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez, who had been the archbishop of San Juan since 1965. Aponte Martinez observed that the ceremony marked the first time in history that a Puerto Rican archbishop had handed the see over to another Puerto Rican archbishop.

Almost immediately, Gonzalez Nieves began gaining fame across the island. He was seen as an outspoken archbishop, particularly for defending the Navy-Vieques protests and condemning homosexuality, among other things. His actions in the Vieques Protests gained international notoriety, and he was viewed as a strong Latin-American leader of the Catholic Church.

He has proclaimed his pride in being Puerto Rican, asked the Government to work hard to preserve the national identity of Puerto Ricans, and criticized political corruption in Puerto Rico.

During the spring of 2006, along with several Protestant leaders, he was instrumental in persuading Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, Senate President Kenneth McClintock, and House Speaker Jose Aponte Hernandez to resolve Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis, which had sparked a two-week-long government shutdown.