Father Javier Baeza was born in 1967 and was ordained a priest at the age of 23. His first years as a seminarian were spent in a shared apartment, but the arrival of Cardinal Ángel Suquía to the Archdiocese of Madrid in 1983 led him to take the last two courses at the seminary.
He is considered a disciple of the priest Enrique de Castro, who died on February 15, 2023 and known in Spain as “the Red Priest of Vallecas”, an area in which what was, until 2007, the parish of San Carlos Borromeo is located.
That year, Cardinal Rouco made the decision to close the place as a parish and reduce it to the status of Pastoral Center. Officially, it was then alleged that it was because the priests, since 1985, “dedicated themselves exclusively to care and service in the area of social marginalization.”
However, the decision was made after it was reported that they celebrated the Eucharist without liturgical coverings and “consecrated” with donuts or nougat and carried out collective absolutions, among other actions contrary to the discipline of the Catholic Church.