Jorge Urosa

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Styles of
Jorge Cardinal Urosa Savino
Reference style His Eminence
Spoken style Your Eminence
Informal style Cardinal
See Caracas


Jorge Liberato Cardinal Urosa Savino (born August 28, 1942) is a Venezuelan prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Archbishop of Caracas, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2006.

[edit] Biography

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 José Cardinal Quintero Parra on August 15, 1967.

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.

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. 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.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Luis Henríquez Jiménez
Archbishop of Valencia
19902005
Succeeded by
Reinaldo del Prette Lissot
Preceded by
Antonio Ignacio Cardinal Velasco Garcia, SDB
Archbishop of Caracas
2005—present
Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by
Jaime Cardinal Sin
Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria ai Monti
2006–present
Succeeded by
incumbent