The article below was reprinted with permission, and with edits for style, from the English-speaking Conference newsletter’s second issue, published on May 18.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — Capping off a whirlwind month, former General Minister of the Order, now Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM, was ordained bishop in the Holy Apostolic Metropolitan Cathedral here on May 18.
His ordination occurred just a month and a half after being named by Pope Francis to become the titular archbishop of Belcastro and Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The Holy Father’s announcement came on April 6.
Archbishop José was ordained by presiding bishop Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, Vatican Secretary of State, along with co-consecrating bishops Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo, OFM, and Archbishop Julián Barrio Barrio of Santiago de Compostela.
Many cardinals, archbishops, bishops, friars, priests and religious were also present including Fr. John Puodziunas, OFM, president of the English-speaking Conference; Fr. Michael Perry, OFM, General Vicar of the Order; and Fr. Francis Walter, OFM, General Councilor for the ESC.
On May 19, Archbishop José presided over a Mass of Thanksgiving for his episcopal ordination in the church of the friary of St. Francis in Santiago de Compostela, which is the location of provincial office of the friars. Many of the same guests remained present for the Mass of Thanksgiving. Also present were Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, SDB, a First Order affiliate of Immaculate Conception Province, archbishop of Tegucigalpa and head of Pope Francis’s Group of Eight Reform Task Force, as was Brazilian cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Video of Archbishop José’s ordination as well as a video recalling his service to the Order are available online.
— Fr. Thomas Washburn, OFM, is secretary of the English-speaking Conference. In a reflection by the president of the ESC included in the May 18 newsletter, Fr. John Puodziunas, OFM, said, “As the banquet wound down around midnight, I knew I had had an experience of a lifetime – the great tradition and solemnity of our Church, the hard work and dedication of a friar culminating in great joy, a celebrating fraternity, and a very large thurible swinging overhead – the spirit is alive, well, and active in our Church, in our Order, in us.”