Pope Francis appoints a new bishop of San Feliu de Llobregat, Spain

The Vatican announced this Tuesday that Pope Francis has appointed the Dominican priest Xabier Gómez García as Bishop of San Feliú de Llobregat, a suffragan Spanish diocese of the Archdiocese of Barcelona.

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The Dominican will succeed Bishop Agustín Cortés Serrano, who assumed the government of the diocese in 2004, when it was created, coming from the Diocese of Ibiza. Starting today, Bishop Cortés, who had submitted his resignation in October 2022 for reasons of age, will serve as diocesan administrator until the episcopal consecration and inauguration of his successor.

The consecration ceremony will take place on November 30 at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, a temple that this year 2024 will celebrate 5 centuries since its construction.

The Bishop-elect of Sant Feliú de Llobregat was born in 1970 in Azcoitia (Guipúzcoa, Spain) and was ordained a priest at the age of 24 in the Diocese of San Sebastián. In 2003 he entered the novitiate of the Order of Preachers in Salamanca, where he made his first religious profession in September 2004.

Since then, he began his work linked to youth ministry in Madrid. Between 2016 and 2018 he held the priory of the convent of Santa Catalina in Barcelona, ​​combining it with the work of promoter of Justice and Peace within the order, first at the provincial and then European level.

Since 2019 he has been working at the Santo Tomás de Aquino-El Olivar convent in Madrid, as prior. Two years later he began to direct the EEC Migration Department. Since 2022 he has been director of the prenovitiate program of the Dominican province.

The new prelate is a polyglot, as he speaks Spanish, Basque, Catalan and French. In a videomensajethe bishop-elect affirms his willingness to put himself “at the service of the communities of San Feliú de Llobregat, welcoming and missionary communities.”

For its part, in a letter Addressed to the parishioners, Bishop Cortés has pointed out that “this providential appointment fulfills the continuity of the Apostolic Succession, which guarantees the ties that historically link us with the Apostles and with Jesus Christ himself. “We thank God! He has been faithful to that promise that was implicit in the mandate, twenty years ago, to launch the path of a new diocese.”

Mons. Cortes his replacement had been urged for health reasons last July.

The Diocese of San Feliú de Llobregat It serves a population of just over one million inhabitants through 123 parishes. It has 89 diocesan priests, of which 41 are already retired. To these we must add 48 religious priests and 18 permanent deacons. In 2023 two new priests were ordained.