Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino

infobox cardinalbiog
name = Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino


See = Havana
Title = Archbishop of Havana
Period = 1981 – present
cardinal = 26 November 1994
Predecessor = Francisco Oves-Fernandez
Successor = incumbent
post = Bishop of Pinar del Río | date of birth = Birth date and age|1936|10|18|df=y
place of birth = Jaguey Grande, Matanzas, Cuba|

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=San Cristobal de la Habana|

Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino (born October 18, 1936 in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas, Cuba) is the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Havana and a Latin Rite Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the second Cuban elevated to Cardinal.

He studied for priesthood at the Seminary of San Alberto Magno in Matanzas and in the Seminary of the Fathers of Foreign Missions in Quebec, Canada. He was ordained a priest on August 2, 1964 by Bishop Jose Maximino Dominguez-Rodriguez of Matanzas. He was assigned to various parishes in the Diocese of Matanzas from 1964 to 1966. He was imprisoned by the Communist government from 1966 to 1967. From 1967 to 1978 he resumed his work in the Diocese of Matanzas and was a professor at the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary in Havana.

On December 4, 1978, Pope John Paul II named him Bishop of the Diocese of Pinar del Rio. He was consecrated bishop on January 14, 1979 by Mons. Mario Tagliaferri, Titular Archbishop of Formia, Pro-Nuncio in Cuba and assisted by Mons. Francisco Oves-Fernandez, Archbishop of Havana and Mons. José Maximino Eusebio Domínguez-Rodríguez, Bishop of Matanzas. He was later promoted to Archbishop of Havana in 1981. He was proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of "Santi Aquila e Priscilla" on November 26, 1994 and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.

In 2004, the Humanitarian Institution of Merit in Barcelona, Spain awarded him with the "Gran Cruz al Mérito Humanitario." He has been given an Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Saint Thomas, Barry University, University of San Francisco, Providence College, Boston College and St. John's University.

References

* "The Miami Herald", April 13, 2005, From Enemy to Possible Pope