Pope Francis has appointed as auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Zamora, Mexico, the Reverend Francisco Figueroa Cervantes, until now pro-vicar general of the same diocese, assigning him the titular see of Lamasba.
Msgr. Francisco Figueroa Cervantes was born on April 11, 1975 in Jiquilpan, diocese of Zamora. Before embarking on the path to the priesthood, he attended the Faculty of Computer Engineering at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
He entered the seminary in Zamora and was ordained a priest on 21 June 2003 for the same diocese. In 2005 he obtained a licentiate in theology and in 2007 a licentiate in Church history from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He has been vice parish priest and since 2008 formator in the seminary, chaplain in several religious communities, and collaborator of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario parish. In 2018 he was appointed pro-vicar general after serving as secretary chancellor of the Curia.
Zamora, Diocese of (ZAMORENSIS), in the Republic of Mexico, comprises almost one-half of the State of Michoacan and has a population of 400,000, according to catholic.com. The city of Zamora, founded in 1540 by Antonio de Mendoza, and built with fortifications (a privilege at that time) to serve as a barrier against the onslaughts of the Chichimecas Indians, has a population of 14,000. Vasco de Quiroga, first Bishop of Michoacan (d. at Uruapan, March 14, 1565), made it a parish and placed a rector in charge. It was there, in fact, that the Franciscan Fathers had baptized the Indians many years before. When Michoacan became an archbishopric Zamora was made an episcopal see with the mountainous part of the State of Michoacan under its jurisdiction. The diocese has 2 seminaries and 288 students, 159 parochial schools, and 12 Catholic colleges, with about 11,000 pupils. Protestants have neither churches nor colleges in this diocese. A new cathedral is being built in the city of Zamora, the birthplace of Msgr. Labastida y Davalos, Archbishop of Mexico, who took such an active part in the affairs of Mexico during the wars of reform and under the empire. Uruapan, founded by Father Juan de S. Miguel (one of the first Franciscans in Mexico), belongs to the Diocese of Zamora.
