On Friday, June 28, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Raúl Biord Castillo as the new metropolitan archbishop of Caracas, after accepting the resignation of Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, who will turn 80 on October 10.
Thus, Archbishop Raúl Biord Castillo became the 17th Archbishop of Caracas and will probably soon be the third in a family line of Venezuelan cardinals: Cardinal Lucas Guillermo Castillo Hernández (1878-1955) and Cardinal Rosalio José Castillo Lara (1922-2007). The first exercised his primacy during the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez and hid the Venezuelan journalist Miguel Otero Silva, who was pursued by the General’s hitmen; the second was president of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City (1990-1997), drafter of the Code of Canon Law and denounced the authoritarianism of former President Hugo Chávez Frías.
Furthermore, his great-uncle was also archbishop of the see of Caracas: Msgr. Lucas Guillermo Castillo Hernández, then bishop of Coro, was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Caracas on 10 November 1939, and later became the 10th archbishop of Caracas and primate of Venezuela on 13 May 1946.
Salesian missionary
The new archbishop of Caracas was born on October 23, 1962 in San Antonio de los Altos, a small town of friendly people located a few kilometers from the city of Caracas. Son of Horacio Enrique Biord Rodríguez and Ana Dolores Castillo Lara de Biord, he is the second of four siblings. He was baptized on December 8, 1962 in the Parish Church of San Antonio de los Altos by Father Antonio Sobrado Serrano.
Bishop Biord received his first communion on June 28, 1970, from his uncle, Fr. Rosalio José Castillo Lara, in the chapel of the Salesian Novitiate of San Antonio de los Altos, where he later made his first profession as a Salesian of Don Bosco on September 7, 1980. At the age of 8, he began attending the Salesian Oratory and was confirmed on May 25, 1973, at the Don Bosco National Temple in Altamira (Caracas). He attended high school at the Salesian Aspirancy of Santa María de Los Teques and in 1979 he entered the Salesian Novitiate.
He obtained the title of Baccalaureatum in Philosophy from the Salesian Pontifical University with the distinction of with highest praiseHe obtained a licentiate in Theology from the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome and a doctorate in Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. After making his perpetual profession on 8 September 1987, he was ordained a priest on 15 July 1989 by Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara.
Upon his return to Venezuela, he held various pastoral and educational roles: parish vicar at San Juan Bosco in Los Teques; member of the Presbyteral Council of the diocese of Los Teques; professor and rector of the Salesian University Institute P. Ojeda (IUSPO) in Los Teques; professor at the Major Seminaries of Caracas, Maturín and Manaus (Brazil); secretary of the Theological-Pastoral Commission of the Plenary Council of Venezuela; provincial vicar of the Salesian Society of San Juan Bosco in Venezuela.
On November 30, 2013, he was appointed Bishop of La Guaira by Pope Francis and received episcopal ordination on February 8, 2014. Within the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference he has been vice president (2018-2022); general secretary (2022-2023); delegate to CELAM; he is currently a member of the Permanent Commission, president of the Episcopal Commission of Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions and Member of the National Institute of Pastoral Care.
His ministry has been characterized by a strong focus on education, formation and youth ministry. Msgr. Biord is the author of several books and articles on theology and philosophy and has contributed significantly to Salesian history and spirituality in Venezuela.
Venezuela: “pain, tears and suffering”
In 2017, the Spanish media “Digital Religion“He said that Bishop Raúl Biord “is one of the most important bishops in Latin America.” At that time he was bishop of the diocese of La Guaira, a peripheral diocese of the city of Caracas that has about 500,000 inhabitants, 27 parishes and a small seminary.
It is worth clarifying that, although some Venezuelan media have tried to make it seem like the new archbishop of Caracas is close to the regime, the truth is that Archbishop Raúl Biord has never closed his eyes to the Venezuelan reality, as he demonstrated in the interview conducted by Religión Digital, when he was asked about Venezuela: “It is a very difficult situation that we are living through because of the hunger of our ordinary people. Because this political model that they want to impose, the so-called socialism of the 21st century (a socialist revolution that professes to be communist), has brought about poverty and exclusion in 18 years. Without a doubt it has caused and is causing hunger and the death of many innocent people.”
And, after seven years, his statements are even more relevant: “There is pain, there is crying, there is suffering from hunger and other basic shortages among our people, such as the lack of medicines, from which many patients die every day. That is why the bishops are very concerned here, precisely in this suffering.”
It is not in vain that we have seen it at the forefront of many of the documents issued by the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, denouncing the democratic and humanitarian crisis that the South American country has been experiencing for more than two decades. “In these years the Episcopal Conference has been critical, and it can be so because it is with the people and defending the interests of the people… The bishops and priests are in the poorest neighborhoods, among the people, and we know the situation throughout the country. There is no political interest in a partisan sense, nor any interest other than the good of the people,” he explained.
In fact, as Bishop of the Diocese of La Guaira, Msgr. Raúl Biord lived for 11 years in one of the most complex areas of north-central Venezuela, with serious problems of poverty and social disintegration, caused mainly by the landslide of December 1999, in which some 30,000 people died. This reality allowed him to develop a great sensitivity for the most vulnerable, which was reflected in numerous social aid programs through the Diocesan Caritas; in addition, his episcopate was also concerned with the spiritual nourishment of the people, with the construction of nine churches.
But what can we expect from Bishop Raúl Biord as head of the most important jurisdiction in Venezuela? In an interview with the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Needhe assured that as bishop “we are here to serve the people, especially the poorest. Our role and commitment consist in being a presence that brings light to the situation from the Gospel.” And Don Bosco’s charisma has given him the opportunity to work in the education of many young Venezuelans; therefore, as a Salesian, “I feel the invitation to live in the joy and optimism typical of young people, and to worry about their education and salvation,” he told the media. Primicias24 after his appointment.
