Rome, May 14, 2011 - Today the Holy Father appointed Prof. Dr. Guzmán CARRIQUIRY LECOUR Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. We are at once surprised and honored that the Holy Father has selected a lay person who has been serving as the Under-Secretary of our dicastery for man years for this important responsibility at the service of the Church in Latin America.
The Pontifical Commission for Latin America was established by Pope Pius XII in 1958 and is charged with the task of council and help to the local Church in Latin America through a unified study of the doctrinal problems and pastoral questions that refer to the life and development of the Church in this part of the world and in a special way of promoting the new evangelization. The Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, presides over this commission and will now be assisted, effective immediately, by Prof. Dr. Carriquiry as Secretary of this commission.
Born in Montevideo (Uruguay) April 20, 1944, Prof. Carriquiry is married to Lídice María Gómez Mango and they have four children and eight grandchildren. In his book on globalization, “Una apuesta por América Latina”, published in 2003, Prof. Carriquiry describes himself as an Uruguayan and a “Mercosureño”, South American, Latin American who, by the incalculable and mysterious designs of Providence, has worked for forty years for the Holy See, at the very heart of the Catholic Church.
Professor Carriquiry studied in Montevideo, earning his doctorate in Law and Social Sciences and certification to practice as an attorney from the Universidad de la República. He was director of the Catholic Youth and University Student movement in Uruguay and also worked as director of the Uruguayan Bishop’s Centre for Social Communications.
On December 1, 1971, he began his service in the Holy See and February 11, 1977 he was appointed an official member of the Council for the Laity by His Holiness Paul VI. On September 12, 1991 John Paul II appointed him Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and reconfirmed by His Holiness Benedict XVI February 24, 2009. As such, he was the first layman to be appointed a head of office by Paul VI, and later, the first lay Under-Secretary of a Vatican dicastery appointed by John Paul II. During his more than twenty five years an undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity he has assisted many other Vatican offices.
He has been appointed by the Vatican to participate as an expert in four General Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops (regarding the theme of the evangelization in the modern world, on the family, on the laity, and on the Church in America). He has also participated as an appointed “expert” in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th General Conference of CELAM (Puebla, 1979; Santo Domingo, 1992; Aparecida, 2007).
He has represented the Council for the Laity at numerous Congresses of International Catholic Associations and of Ecclesial Movements and has collaborated in the preparation of various Papal visits to Latin America. He has shared in responsibilities of the organization of the World Youth Days, participating in all of them since the first encounter in Rome in 1985 up until Sydney in 2008. He has also played a major role in guiding many Catholic associations, lay movements, and ecclesial communities in their process of Pontifical recognition and in the organization of the world encounters and congresses of these realities that have been held in Rome.
He has been a “visiting professor” at various Italian pontifical universities and those of other European and Latin American countries, and has numerous publications to his credit. He has received several honors, including that of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.
After many years of dedicated service with, for and on behalf of the Catholic laity, Prof. Carriquiry is now entrusted with this important responsibility of the Church in Latin America. We are certain that his ample experience and his zeal and love for the Church will enable him to carry out this new task with the necessary competence and an authentic spirit of service to the people of God who make there way along their pilgrimage in the “Continent of Hope”. We wish him all the best and assure him of our prayers as we entrust him and his new mission to the protection and care of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
