The Holy Father has appointed as metropolitan archbishop of Cartagena, Colombia, Bishop Francisco Javier Múnera Correa, I.C.M., of San Vicente del Caguán, Colombia.
The appointment comes after the Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the metropolitan archdiocese presented by Archbishop Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, C.I.M.
Bishop Francisco Javier Múnera Correa was born on October 21, 1956 in Copacabana, metropolitan archdiocese of Medellín. He carried out his studies in philosophy at the major seminaries of the Consolata Missionaries and the metropolitan archdiocese of Medellín, and in theology at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá. He was awarded a licentiate in missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome.
He gave his religious vows for the Institute of Consolata Missionaries on December 25, 1981, and received priestly ordination on 8 August 1982.
He has served as vice-rector of the International Seminary of the Bravetta Institute of Consolata Missionaries in Rome (1983-1986), parish vicar in Loyangalani in the diocese of Marsabit in Kenya (1987-1991), and rector of the International Seminary of the Institute of Consolata Missionaries in Bogotá (1983-1998).
On November 28, 1998, he was appointed as titular bishop of Aquae Novae in Numidia and vicar apostolic of San Vicente – Puerto Leguízamo. He received episcopal consecration on February 11, 1999. On 30 May 2019, on the occasion of the elevator of the vicariate to a diocese, he was appointed as the first bishop of San Vicente del Caguán.
The Diocese of Cartagena is one of the oldest Episcopal Seats in the new world, on the mainland, it was the second Diocese after Santa Marta, which was created on January 10, 1534; It was the third Diocese created in the history of South America. For three centuries the Dioceses of Bogotá, Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Popayán were the only ecclesiastical circumscriptions in the territory of present-day Colombia.
For four centuries, the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Cartagena had a presence in 4 departments of the Caribbean Coast: Bolívar, Atlántico, Sucre, and Córdoba. In 1932 the Diocese of Barranquilla was created; in 1954 the Diocese of Montería was created; in 1969 the Dioceses of Sincelejo, Magangué, and the Prelature of Alto Sinú and San Jorge were created, which later became the Diocese of Montelibano.
