Photo: Eliana Obregon.
The mass for the beginning of the pastoral ministry of Jorge Garcia Cuerva as the new archbishop of Buenos Aires took place this afternoon in the Plaza de Mayo, with the presence of the president Alberto Fernandezpart of his cabinet, political leaders and from different fields.
The ceremony began at 2:00 p.m. inside the cathedral while outside, in the Plaza de Mayo, faithful from Buenos Aires and groups of young people and students from different parishes in Buenos Aires gathered, while previously -between 12 and 12.10- The bells of all the Buenos Aires churches were made to ring greeting the new archbishop.
The ceremony in the Plaza is attended by the President, the Foreign Minister santiago cafierolas minister Kelly Olmos (Work and Victoria Toulouse Peace (Social development); and the secretary of Worship of the city, Frederick Puglieseand of the Nation, Guillermo Oliveri.
The pre-candidate for Buenos Aires head of government of Together for Change, Jorge Macri and the leader Federico Pinedo, among others, also attended.
The celebration began inside the cathedral with the profession of faith and the oath of allegiance by García Cuerva; and then the apostolic nuncio, Monsignor Miroslaw Adamczyk, imposed on him the archiepiscopal pallium that was given to him by Pope Francis a few days ago.
Photo: Eliana Obregon.
Then, bishops and dozens of priests moved in a procession to the outside of the cathedral to begin the mass in the Plaza de Mayo, which will be concelebrated by the president of the Episcopate, Oscar Ojea and prelates from all over the country.
On the altar arranged in the Plaza, the episcopal emblem of García Cuerva was arranged, which, with the phrase “Do not turn your face away from the poor”, is made up of five symbols: the cross, the staff, the earth, the tin roof -which refers to the villas and the reality of poverty- and the star.
Academic knowledge and deep pastoral insertion
Aged 55, García Cuerva is considered a bishop of great academic knowledge as well as having a deep pastoral insertion, especially in the prison environment, and with an important social trajectory in the poor neighborhoods of the Buenos Aires suburbs.
“I want to be the shepherd of all, especially those sheep that are most wounded, those sheep that suffer the most, especially those who feel excluded, marginalized and those who suffer the cross of the pain of the disease”he said in his first words after his appointment was known, weeks ago.
Photo: Eliana Obregon.
At the end of June, Pope Francis handed over the blessed canopy to the new Buenos Aires archbishop, in a ceremony in the Basilica of San Pedro in which he also encouraged the heads of the archdioceses around the world to work “in the neighborhoods, in society civil, in the Church and in politics”.
The appointment of García Cuerva was announced on May 26, after the Vatican accepted the resignation presented by Cardinal Mario Poli, having turned 75 -on November 29, 2022- and appointed him apostolic administrator of Buenos Aires , with the faculties of archdiocesan archbishop, until the canonical inauguration of his successor.
Born on April 12, 1968 in Río Gallegos, García Cuerva has an important academic career -he is a lawyer and theologian- and also has a deep pastoral insertion: he was chaplain of several prisons and secretary of the Prison Ministry of the Episcopate and served as parish priest in the populous town of La Cava, in San Isidro, as well as in other towns in the Buenos Aires suburbs, a true “shepherd with the smell of sheep”, as Francisco usually defines priests with that profile.
Photo: Press.
“Here, in the diocese at the end of the world, I was learning to be a diocesan bishop together with the people, dreaming together a field hospital Church as the Pope tells us”, were one of his first words after the appointment, in a letter released to through social networks.
The former auxiliary bishop of Lomas de Zamora and current bishop of Río Gallegos – a position he has held since January 2019 – will replace Cardinal Poli, the successor of Jorge Bergoglio in the city of Buenos Aires, who kept a low profile throughout his Buenos Aires administration.
The new Buenos Aires archbishop is the son of Jorge Antonio García Cuerva -dentist, retired Commodore of the Argentine Air Force- and Graciela García Cuerva -teacher-; and he is the eldest of five siblings from a middle-class family from the city of Buenos Aires that moved to Río Gallegos for a few years, where he was born.
In 1986, he entered the law degree at the University of Buenos Aires, and at the same time began to mission in the popular neighborhoods of El Palito and El Garrote, in the town of Tigre. That is when he discovers his priestly vocation that led him to interrupt his law studies, which he resumed years later.
Photo: Eliana Obregon.
On March 14, 1989, García Cuerva entered the seminary of the diocese of San Isidro and was ordained a priest on October 24, 1997 in the Cathedral of San Isidro by the then Bishop Jorge Casaretto.
As a priest, he worked in the diocese of San Isidro, where he began his ministry in the poor neighborhoods of the suburbs and was parochial vicar of the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Cava, located in La Cava, Beccar, one of the best-known towns in emergency.
In 2006 he became parish priest of the Santa Clara de Asís Church in the town of El Talar, Tigre district, in the popular neighborhoods of San Pablo and Almirante Brown; and in 2014 he returned to La Cava as a parish priest.
He was a member of the National Commission on Drug Dependence of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (until 2013).
In the field of prison ministry, he was chaplain of prison units in the province of Buenos Aires (since 2011); diocesan delegate for Prison Ministry (since 1997); regional delegate of the Prison Ministry, and representative of Latin America and the Caribbean before the International Commission of Catholic Prison Ministry (ICCPPC) in 2010 and 2017.
