Global Courant 2023-05-26 15:41:42
He is 55 years old, is a lawyer and a former village priest. He will replace Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli, who this Thursday led his last Tedeum.
Pope Francis appointed this Friday Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, bishop of Río Gallegos and with a past as a village priest, as the new archbishop of the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, replacing Mario Aurelio Poli, who has already turned 75 and will change functions.
The official announcement occurs one day after the last Tedeum of Poli, who from now on will be apostolic administrator of Buenos Aires. This Thursday, the cardinal said goodbye with a tough speech where he highlighted the increase in child poverty.
His replacement, García Cuerva, is 55 years old, has a long history of working in poor neighborhoods of Tigre and is a lawyer graduated from the University of Salta. He also has studies in Theology.
In his interventions, he continues the lines of work proposed by Francis from Rome: inequity and poverty, prison reality, social commitment and the function of neighborhood centers as a response to the problems of vulnerable youth.
Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, new Archbishop of Buenos Aires. AICA photo.
The son of Jorge Antonio Garcia Cuerva -dentist, Commodore of the Argentine Air Force-, and Graciela Garcia Cuerva -teacher-, he is the eldest of five siblings from a middle-class family from the city of Buenos Aires who moved for a few years to Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina, where Jorge Ignacio was born.
In 1986 he entered the law career at the University of Buenos Aires. However, at that time he began to mission in the popular neighborhoods of El Palito and El Garrote, in the town of Tigre. It is then that he discovered his vocation that led him to interrupt his law studies, which he will resume years later.
On March 14, 1989, he entered the seminary of the Diocese of San Isidro, where he began his ministry in the different popular neighborhoods of the area. He was parochial vicar of the Nuestra Señora de la Cava Church, located in La Cava, a town in Beccar, one of the best-known slums.
Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva with Pope Francis. AICA photo.
Later he was appointed by Pope Francis as Auxiliary Bishop of Lomas de Zamora, in November 2017. In January 2019 he was appointed Bishop of Río Gallegos.
Along with this journey, García Cuerva became a student of theology. He carried out a degree thesis analyzing the role of the church during the yellow fever epidemic that hit Buenos Aires in 1871. This study was relevant during Covid-19 to articulate the work of the church with the State.
Jorge García Cuerva gained notoriety when he baptized the children of Flor de la V.
He was also a member of the National Commission on Drug Dependence and chaplain of prison units, another of the axes where he focused. He also completed his law studies at the Catholic University of Salta.
In his presentations, he deals with the following social and ecclesial challenges based on Francis’ pontifical social magisterium: inequality and poverty; prison reality, restorative justice, prison spirituality and social commitment; and neighborhood centers as a response to the problem of vulnerable youth.
García Cuerva will be the 13th archbishop (and 27th diocesan) of the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, created as a diocese by Pope Paul V in 1629 and elevated to an archdiocese in 1865. It includes the entire territory of the city of Buenos Aires and the island of Martín Garcia.
It has 186 parishes, 188 churches and chapels, a total of 764 priests (446 diocesan clergy and 318 religious clergy), 6 permanent deacons, 76 brothers, 43 major seminarians, 1,430 nuns, and 663 educational centers.
