José Quintero Parra

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=José Cardinal Quintero Parra
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Caracas (emeritus)|

José Humberto Cardinal Quintero Parra (September 22, 1902—July 8, 1984) was a Venezuelan prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Caracas from 1960 to 1980, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1961.

Biography

José Quintero Parra was born in Mucuchíes, Mérida, to Genaro Quintero and his wife Perpetua Parra, and was later baptized on October 31, 1902. He studied at the seminary in Mérida and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (from where he obtained his doctorates in theology and canon law) before being ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Filippo Cortesi on August 22, 1926. Quintero then did pastoral work in Mérida until 1929, when he was named private secretary to the Archbishop of the same city, Acacio Chacón Guerra. Serving as Archbishop Chacón's secretary until 1934, he was also secretary of the archdiocesan curia and vicar general of Mérida from 1929 to 1953.

On September 7, 1953, Quintero was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Mérida and Titular Archbishop of "Achrida" by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following December 6 from Adeodato Cardinal Piazza, OCD, with Archbishops Luigi Centoz and Giuseppe Misuraca serving as co-consecrators, in the chapel of the "Collegio Pio Latinoamericano" at Rome. Quintero was later named Archbishop of Caracas and thus Primate of the Church in Venezuela on August 31, 1960.

Pope John XXIII created him Cardinal Priest of "Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio" in the consistory of January 16, 1961. Quintero, who was the first Venezuelan member of the College of Cardinals, attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and was a cardinal elector in the 1963 papal conclave that selected Pope Paul VI. Along with José Cardinal Bueno y Monreal, he assisted Paul Cardinal Zoungrana in delivering one of the closing messages of the Council on December 8, 1965 [Christus Rex. [http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/v19.html To Workers] ] .

During his tenure as Caracas' archbishop, he made an offer of mediation to Venezuela's guerrillas [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900808,00.html Man of El Cambio] May 2, 1969] , served as President of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, and enforced the "dignity and obligation of fatherhood" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896578,00.html Illegitimate Family] March 8, 1963] . Before he resigned as Archbishop on May 24, 1980, after a period of twenty-nine years, the Venezuelan primate participated in the conclaves of August and October 1978, which selected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II respectively.

Quintero died after a long illness in Caracas, at age 81. He is buried in the chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar in the metropolitan cathedral of Caracas. President Jaime Lusinchi decalred an official three days of mourning following the Cardinal's death [New York Times. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DB1339F933A25754C0A962948260 Jose Cardinal Quintero] July 10, 1984] .

Trivia

*Quintero also served as Dean of the Law Faculty at Mérida University [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895171,00.html Four New Hats] December 26, 1960] .
*He won scholarships for his education at Rome [Ibid.] .
*The Cardinal was an amateur portrait painter [Ibid.] .

References

External links

* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-q.htm#Quintero Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bqupa.html Catholic-Hierarchy]