Monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

Bernardino Piñera Carvallo (22 September 1915 – 21 June 2020) was a Chilean bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.

Life

Born in Paris, France, Piñera was ordained a priest on 5 April 1947. He worked for the

Catholic Action Catholic Action is a movement of Catholic laity, lay people within the Catholic Church which advocates for increased Catholic influence on society. Catholic Action groups were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic cou ...

. On 11 February 1958,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed Piñera Carvallo

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

Talca Talca () is a city and commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the city had a population of 201,142. The city is an important ...

. Later, he was appointed Bishop of Temuco (1960–77) and Archbishop of La Serena (1983–90). From 1983 to 1988, he was president of the

Episcopal Conference of Chile The Catholic Church in Chile is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the curia in Rome, and the Episcopal Conference of Chile. The Church is composed of 5 archdioceses, 18 dioceses, 2 territor ...

. Piñera Carvallo attended the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

from 1962 to 1965. He was the paternal uncle of

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (; 1 December 1949 – 6 February 2024) was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic Party (C ...

, the president of Chile.

Vatican sex abuse investigation

On 21 August 2019, Chile's

nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

Ivo Scapolo announced that the Vatican had launched an investigation into claims that Piñera sexually abused at least one child 50 years earlier. No charges were ever filed, however.

Death

Msgr Piñera died in Santiago on 21 June 2020, aged 104. Piñera had contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

a month earlier during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Chile The worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 () severely affected Chile. The virus was confirmed to have reached Chile on 3 March 2020. Initial cases had been imported from Sou ...

. Although the government initially denied the disease to be the cause of death, the certificate issued by the Civil Registry and Identification Service indicates "pneumonia due to COVID-19" as the cause. At the time of his death, he was the oldest Catholic bishop in the world, and the last surviving bishop appointed by Pius XII.

References

External links

Catholic Hierarchy
1915 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Chile French emigrants to Chile 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Chile Clergy from Paris Bernardino Participants in the Second Vatican Council Chilean men centenarians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile Roman Catholic bishops of Temuco Roman Catholic archbishops of La Serena Roman Catholic bishops of Talca 20th-century French Roman Catholic bishops {{Chile-RC-archbishop-stub