Pope Francis accepted the resignation to the pastoral governance of the diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Mexico, presented by Monsignor Salvador Rangel Mendoza. He appointed Bishop of the same diocese José de Jesús González Hernández, up to now Prelate of the Jesus Mary Prelature, reported the Holy See Press Office on Friday, February 11, 2022.
Monsignor González Hernández was born on December 25, 1964, in Etzatán, in the Archdiocese of Guadalajara. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1994, incardinated in the Order of Minor Brothers. Subsequently, he held posts in Mexico, the Holy Land, Sweden, Belgium, and Mozambique. He was appointed Bishop of the Jesus Mary Prelature on February 27, 2010, being ordained on May 25, 2010.
He is in charge of the Indigenous Pastoral Dimension of Mexico’s Episcopal Conference and is a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa has been so-called since 1990. It is part of the province of Acapulco (1959) and is made up of the dioceses of Ciudad Altamirano (1964), Lázaro Cárdenas (1985), and Tlapa (1992), as well as from that of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, which in 2004 had 86 parishes.
Bishop Efrén Ramos Salazar (1939-2005), successor to fourteen pastors who preceded him, was the one who promoted and initiated the project of moving the headquarters of the Diocesan Offices to Chilpancingo. Unfortunately, Bishop Efrén Ramos died in the first months of 2005, after a long and painful illness. The Diocese was left under the care of the Archbishop of Acapulco Felipe Aguirre Franco, while a new bishop is appointed.
The evangelization of the Chohuixcas, Tlapanecos, Mixtecos, and Amusgos, indigenous families that still live in this region, is mainly due to the Augustinians, among whom Fray Agustín de la Coruña stood out, who evangelized Chilapa and Tlapa, and Fray Juan Bautista Moya, evangelizer of Tierra Caliente. . When the religious withdrew (XVIII) the local church was attended by priests of the secular clergy linked to the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Mexico, Puebla, Michoacán, and Oaxaca.
