César García Magán, elected general secretary of the Episcopal Conference

garcia magan surpassed the other two candidatesDeputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Fernando Gimenez Barriocanal and the vice-bishop of Valencia, Arturo P.Ros, respectively, as reported by the EEC.

Francisco César García Magán is currently Auxiliary Bishop of Toledo and is 60 years old. has been Member of the Religious Freedom Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Justice (2009-2014); He is Corresponding Academician of the Royal Spanish Academy of Law and Legislation and a board member of the Spanish Association of Canonists. He is also His Holiness’ pastor (2000) and His Holiness’s honorary bishop (2005).

He was born in Madrid on February 2, 1962 and entered the Toledo Seminary where he became a priest in 1980 with a Bachelor of Theology from the Institute of Theology ‘San Ildefonso’ in Toledo, where he completed his religious studies. A priest on July 13, 1986.

This Dogmatic Theology degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University (1990) and from the Pontifical Lateran University (1998) graduated in Canon Law and became a doctor.

He was in the service of the Holy See from 1991 to 2007, first as an official of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (department of General Affairs), but also He was the priest of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Shepherd Mother. Later, he was secretary and counselor of the Apostolic Churches in Colombia, Nicaragua, France and Serbia.

He developed his teaching work at the interdiocesan national seminary in Nicaragua (2002-2003). and currently at the Institutes of Higher Theological Studies of San Ildefonso and the Religious Studies of Santa María de Toledo and Canon Law School of the Ecclesiastical University of Madrid San Dámaso. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Toledo by Pope Francis on November 15, 2021, and was ordained on January 15, 2022.

The selection process began on Tuesday (November 22nd) with an ‘ad hoc’ meeting of the Standing Commission, where the bishops presented their candidacy for Secretary General. Each nomination had to be approved by ten bishops.

Voting between the three proposed candidates took place on the morning of Wednesday, November 23rd. General Assemblyand the election required an absolute majority (half plus one) of those present at the time of the vote, which was carried out secretly and digitally, this procedure is already the first time the EEC president is elected in March 2020.

While one of the duties of the Secretary-General is to inform the public on matters relating to the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the elected person may, if he wishes, separate the position of Secretary-General from the spokesperson and choose another spokesperson for the EEC. If that happens, it won’t be the first time since 1982, when Fernando Sebastián was elected general secretary and appointed Joaquín Luis Ortega as spokesperson.