Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel (born 1 May 1940) is a Mexican

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

who served as

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas from 2000 to 2015. From 1991 to 2000 he was Bishop of Tapachula. Pope Francis raised him to the rank of

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

on 28 November 2020.

Biography

Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel was born on 1 May 1940 in Coatepec Harinas, Estado de México. He was ordained a priest on 25 August 1963. On 7 February 1991,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed him Bishop of Tapachula. He received his episcopal consecration on 7 March 1991 from Archbishop

Girolamo Prigione Girolamo Prigione (12 October 1921 – 27 May 2016) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1951 to 1997. He became an archbishop in 1968 and from then until retirement held po ...

. On 31 March 2000, Pope John Paul named him Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas. He succeeded Bishop Samuel Ruiz García, a social progressive who had defended the rights of the indigenous peoples and of the Zapatista rebels. Arizmendi consistently defended Ruiz against his many critics. Arizmendi has a reputation for being theologically conservative but socially progressive. In 2012, he announced that he would be organizing efforts to translate the Catholic Mass and the Bible into the indigenous language

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

. On 1 May 2015, Arizmendi submitted his resignation to

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

, but was asked to remain. His resignation was accepted on 3 November 2017. On 25 October 2020, Pope Francis announced he would raise him to the rank of

at a consistory scheduled for 28 November 2020. At that consistory, Pope France made him Cardinal-Priest of San Luigi Maria Grignion de Montfort. Arizmendi took possession of his titular church the next day.

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Esquivel, Felipe Arizmendi 1940 births 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Mexico Living people People from the State of Mexico Cardinals created by Pope Francis Mexican cardinals 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Mexico

Biography

See also

References

External links