On November 6th Pope Francis appointed Jesús María López Mauleón Bishop of the Prelature of Tucuma / Upper Xingu, who will part from his current extensive Prelature of Xingu. The new and first prelate will receive the episcopal order in Fortaleza on December 29th and will take possession of the new Prelature on February 2, 2020.
Biographical traits of the new prelate
The newly appointed bishop Jesús María López Mauleón, Augustinian recollect, was born in Mues, a Small Town in Navarre near the city of Estella (Navarra), 64 years ago, in a large family, as was common in Spain in the 1950s 20th century. He was baptized and confirmed in the Parish of Santa Eugenia in his hometown.
At the age of twelve, following in the footsteps of Javier, another brother who is also currently Augustinian, entered the Apostolic College of the Augustine Recollects in Lodosa (Navarra) where he finished studying primary studies. In 1971 he continued his academic preparation by studying the Baccalaureate at the school San Nicolás de Tolentino in Fuenterrabía (Guipúzcoa). In this same center he studied Philosophy for two years with his sight to his future priestly ordination.
Monteagudo (Navarra) was the convent in which he made the novitiate and issued the temporary profession on August 22, 1976. From this training house he goes to the convent of Marcilla (Navarra) to study theology. On July 18, 1981, he was ordained a priest by the Augustinian Recollect Bishop AlquilioAlvarez.
Once ordained a priest, his first ministry was the populous parish of San Sebastian, in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, where he served as parish vicar for five years.
The school year 1986-1987, he will reside in Madrid at the Augustinian University residence as a student of Pastoral Theology at the Instituto León XIII; and from 1987 to 1991 in the parish of Santa Rita as parish vicar and student of Biblical Theology at the Pontifical University of Comillas.
In Sástago (Zaragoza) from 1991 to 1994 and in La Mojonera (Almería) from 1994 to 1997 he will serve as pastor. Two years – from 1997 to 1999 – he served as a professor at the Pablo Sarasate de Lodosa institute before moving to Guaraciaba do Norte (Ceará, Brazil), where he remained for two years as parish vicar.
He returned to Spain, to the parish of Santa Rita in Madrid, to graduate in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical University of Comillas and at the same time served as a parish collaborator .
Returning to Brazil in December 2002, he was assigned to Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, serving as parish vicar in the church of Our Lady of Consolation until April 2004 when, where he moved to Franca, SP, where he served as parish priest until 2011 in the parish of Nuestra Señora de Aparecida and also serves as a teacher.
Between April and August 2011, he resided in Lábrea and served as vicar of the parish Our Lady ofNazareth until going to Fortaleza (Ceará) in 2012 where he served as coordinator of an Area Pastoral for a year until he was appointed parish priest of the parish of San Pedro of this city.
In 2014 he was appointed Episcopal Vicar of the Vicarage Our Lady of the Assumption, a position, along with that of parish priest, who performed with great zeal and dedication until in the summer of 2019 he received the appointment of parish priest of the parish of Our Lady of Joys, in Guaraciaba do Norte. On today, November 6, his appointment as bishop of the Prelature of Tucuma / Upper Xingu, state of Pará,has been made public.
In the light of his being and doing
It is clear from his resume that his main dedication has been ministerial pastoral care, which he has always exercised with total and tireless dedication, and the many destinations and positions he has held have allowed him to acquire multiple experiences and adaptability to discordant situations, sometimes at great risk to his own life. Therefore, his episcopal appointment to start pastoral care in a prelature of new creation offers opportunities and the Church in general and the Prelature of Tucum will have a pastor who will respond to the expectations placed on him.
The Order of Augustinians Recollects is pleased by the episcopal appointment of one of its’ sons and thanks Pope Francis for the trust placed in Friar Jesús López Mauleón, for which the Order prays that his pastoral charity will make Christ present in the hearts of its faithful, and bring peace and justice to the whole society to be evangelized.
Tucum’s prelature / Upper Xingu
The Prelature, newly created, segregated from the Diocese of Xingu, is crossed by the Xingu River, which pours its waters into the Amazon River; its population is approaching 250,000 inhabitants and its extension is of 128,000 square kilometers. The clergy are very scarce: 1 secular priest, nine religious and five religious; it has no major or minor seminarians and the parent parish is dedicated to Our Lady of Aparecida.
Tucum is a municipality with about 40,000 inhabitants; it is the most central city in the Upper Xingu region, the most economically developed.
The social problems in the area are numerous and serious in terms of violence, human trafficking, labour and sexual exploitation, deforestation and the presence of external threats on land, struggle between indigenous and coastal peoples and grilheiros (people foreign to rural communities arriving with the title of land ownership, obtained fraudulently with the corrupt cooperation of the authorities); corruption; heavy immigration- exiles… The wealth of the region is very much, so the interests of large companies is strongly felt.
Desideratum
Faced with a complicated socio-religious reality such as that which the new prelate has to face, from this page www.agustinosrecoletos.org we wish him well in his social efforts and in his evangelizing work. A Church, like the Brazilian Church, so committed to the people and in the defense of the poor, has great challenges in this region, to which Jesús María López Mauleón will try to respond and solve with his dedication, prudence and courage.
