Pope Leo XIV appointed Mons. Ramón Alberto Rolón Güepsa, until now Bishop of Montería, as the new bishop of Chiquinquirá, the diocese of the patron saint of Colombia, the Virgin of Chiquinquirá.
According to the website From the Episcopal Conference of Colombia (CEC) the elected bishop happens in office to Mons. Luis Felipe Sánchez Aponte, who for 21 years led the Diocese of Chiquinquirá.
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The CEC explains that this jurisdiction is known as the “Mariana Diocese” of Colombia, “for having the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá, Marian National Sanctuary led by the Order of Preachers and one of the main pilgrimage sites of the country.”
Who is the new Bishop of Chiquinquirá, the Diocese Mariana of Colombia?
Mons. Ramón Alberto Rolón Güepsa is the new Bishop of Chiquinquirá. He was born in Arboledas (Norte de Santander) on February 28, 1959. He is 66 years old.
He studied philosophy and theology at the Pamplona major seminar. He obtained a degree in Philosophy and Religious Sciences at Santo Tomás University and specialized in philosophy at the Gregorian University of Rome.
He was ordained a priest on December 8, 1984.
He has been pastor of the parishes of San Juan Bautista de Chincota and San José de Mutiscua; and trainer in the major and minor seminars of Pamplona.
He was appointed Bishop of Montería on October 27, 2012, he was also an apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Montelíbano from July 2018 until June 24, 2020.
Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá or Virgen de Chiquinquirá is the patron saint of Colombia and received this title from Pope Pius VII in 1829.
In 1919, Our Lady of Chiquinquirá was canonically crowned by Decree of Pope St. Pius X.
The Sanctuary of the Patroness of Colombia, declared Basilica in 1927 by Pope Pius XI, is visited every year by thousands of faithful, especially during the days close to the central party, on July 9.
In the enclosure is the original canvas with the image of Our Lady, today devoted to the Dominicans.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.