- Juan Francisco Fresno
infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Juan Cardinal Fresno Larrain
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
relstyle= Cardinal
See=Santiago de Chile|Juan Francisco Cardinal Fresno Larrain (
26 July 1914 -14 October 2004 ) was aChile anprelate of theRoman Catholic Church . He served as Archbishop of Santiago de Chile from 1983 to 1990, and was elevated to the Cardinalate in 1985.He was born in
Santiago de Chile ,Chile as the son of Luis Alfredo Fresno Ingunza y Elena Larraín Hurtado. He was educated at theseminary of Santiago de Chile and later at thePontifical Gregorian University ,Rome where he earned alicentiate intheology .He was ordained to the priesthood on
18 December 1937 at thecathedral of Santiago, by Horacio Campillo, archbishop of Santiago. Between 1937 and 1958 he worked as a pastor, in spiritual director and was vice-director of the Minor Seminary. S.S.Pope Pius XII appointed him bishop of Copiapó on15 June 1958 . He attended theSecond Vatican Council . He was promoted to themetropolitan see of La Serena on28 July 1971 . He was elected President of theEpiscopal Conference of Chile in 1975. He played a key role in the efforts to restoredemocracy in Chile during themilitary dictatorship ofAugusto Pinochet by making contact with opposition leaders and persuaded them to unite in a pro-democracy effort that included Marxists and the democratic right. After the fall of Pinochet he promoted their first tense contacts with the government and was one of the supporters ofAcuerdo Nacional para la Transición a la Democracia Plena (National Agreement for the Transition to Full Democracy). This in turn led to the 1988 plebiscite that marked the beginning of the end of the military regime.Pope John Paul II named him Archbishop of Santiago de Chile on3 May 1983 .He was created and proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of "
S. Maria Immacolata di Lourdes a Boccea " in theconsistory of25 May 1985 . He resigned the pastoral government of the archdiocese on30 March 1990 . He lost the right to participate a conclave when turned 80 years of age, in 1994.He died in 2004 at 8:50 p.m in his private residence in Santiago.
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