Luis Concha Córdoba
- Bishop of Manizales (1935-54)
- Archbishop of Manizales (1954-59)
- President of the Colombian Bishops' Conference (1959-66)
- Bishop of the Colombian Military (1959-72)
by Bernardo Herrera Restrepo
by Ismael Perdomo Borrero
by Pope John XXIII
7 November 1891
Bogotá, Colombia
![Luis Concha Córdoba's coat of arms](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Coat_of_arms_of_Luis_Concha_Cordoba.svg/50px-Coat_of_arms_of_Luis_Concha_Cordoba.svg.png)
Styles of Luis Concha Córdoba | |
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Reference style | His Eminence |
Spoken style | Your Eminence |
Informal style | Cardinal |
Luis Concha Córdoba (November 7, 1891—September 18, 1975) was a Colombian priest and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
Cardinal Concha served as Archbishop of Bogotá from 1959 to 1972, before his elevation to the cardinalate in 1961.
Biography
Luis Concha Córdoba was born in Bogotá to José Vicente Concha, the future president of Colombia, and his first wife, Leonor Córdoba. His father prepared him for his first Communion. He was homeschooled in Latin by Dr Miguel Abadía Méndez, who was professor of the same subject at the Seminary of Bogotá, where Concha entered in 1908 to continue his studies in Latin. When Concha's father was made the Colombian ambassador to France, Luis went with him to Paris and there studied humanities. Upon his return to Bogotá, he continued his studies for the priesthood at the seminary.
Ordained on October 28, 1916, Concha then served as a chaplain to the cathedral school, and a professor at the seminary and Our Lady of the Rosary University in Bogotá until 1918, while also doing pastoral work. He was the director of the archdiocesan newspaper from November 1918 to March 1919, and later from August 16 to October 15, 1924. He further studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (where he studied Sacred Scripture), and the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. In late 1920, he was forced by ill health to return early to Colombia without obtaining any academic degrees.
He was named a monastery chaplain, the prefect of studies and a professor at the seminary of Bogotá, and a professor of religion at Gimnasio Moderno and again at Our Lady of the Rosary University in 1921. Concha was raised to the rank of Privy Chamberlain Supernumerary on February 21 of that same year, and was later made spiritual director at the Bogotá seminary in 1923. President Pedro Nel Ospina offered him the position of rector of Our Lady of the Rosary University, but he declined. After teaching Sacred Scripture and moral theology at Bogotá's seminary, Concha became a prebendary of the cathedral chapter.
President of the committee for the 1925 Holy Year, he was also Sub-Promoter of the Faith in the informative process for the beatification of Ezequiel Moreno y Díaz, OAR, who was later canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1992. From 1933 to 1934, Concha served as a canon theologian of Bogotá's cathedral chapter and as secretary of the archdiocesan curia. He then worked as a general assistant to Catholic Action, and archdiocesan chancellor before becoming substitute to the Vicar General in 1934.
On July 13, 1935, Concha was appointed Bishop of Manizales by Pope Pius XI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following November 30 from Archbishop Ismael Perdomo, with Bishops Francisco Cristóbal Toro and Crisanto Luque Sánchez serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of Bogotá. Concha became an Archbishop when his diocese was elevated to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese on May 10, 1954.
Concha was later named Archbishop of Bogotá and thus Primate of the Church in Colombia on May 18, 1959. The next day, on May 19, he was made Vicar of the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Colombia. He also served as President of the Colombian Episcopal Conference.
Pope John XXIII made him Cardinal Priest of S. Maria Nuova in the consistory of January 16, 1961. The Colombian primate attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1963 papal conclave that selected Pope Paul VI. Concha was staunchly conservative,[1][2] and so Colombia was slow in implementing the reforms of the Council[2] He even prohibited any funeral Masses from being celebrated for liberation theologian, Camilo Torres Restrepo.[3] Concha resigned as Bogotá's archbishop on July 22, 1972, and military vicar of Colombia on the following July 29.
The Cardinal died after a long and painful illness at Clínica de Marly in Bogotá, aged 83, where he is buried in the cathedral.
References
External links
- Catholic-Hierarchy [self-published]
- Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
Catholic Church titles | ||
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Preceded by Juan González Arbeláez | Archbishop of Manizales 1935–1959 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Archbishop of Bogotá 1959–1975 | Succeeded by |
- v
- t
- e
en Nueva Granada
- Juan de los Barrios
- Luis Zapata de Cárdenas
- Alfonso López de Avila
- Bartolomé Martinez Menacho y Mesa
- Bartolomé Lobo Guerrero
- Juan Castro
- Pedro Ordóñez y Flórez
- Hernando de Arias y Ugarte
- Julián de Cortázar
- Bernardino de Almansa Carrión
- Cristóbal de Torres
- Juan de Arguinao
- Antonio Sanz Lozano
- Ignacio de Urbina
- Francisco de Cosío y Otero
- Francisco del Rincón
- Antonio Álvarez de Quiñones
- Juan de Galavís
- Diego Fermín de Vergara
- Pedro de Azúa e Iturgoyen
- José Javier de Arauz y Rojas
- Manuel Sosa Betencourt
- Francisco de la Riva
- Lucas Ramírez Galán
- Agustín Camacho y Rojas
- Agustín de Alvarado y Castillo
- Antonio Caballero y Góngora
- Baltazar Martínez de Compañón
- Fernando del Portillo y Torres
- Juan Bautista Sacristán y Galiano
- Isidoro Domínguez
- Fernando Caycedit Florez
- Manuel José Mosquera y Arboleda
- Antonio Herrán y Zaldúa
- Vicente Arbeláez
- José Telésforo Paúl
- Ignacio León Velasco
- Bernardo Herrera Restrepo
- Bernardo Herrera Restrepo
- Ismael Perdomo Borrero
- Crisanto Luque Sánchez
- Luis Concha Córdoba
- Aníbal Muñoz Duque
- Mario Revollo Bravo
- Pedro Rubiano Sáenz
- Rubén Salazar Gómez
- Luis José Rueda Aparicio
current
- Luis Alí Herrera
- Pedro Salamanca Mantilla
former
- José Carrión y Marfil
- José Antonio Chaves
- Indalecio Barreto
- Mosé Higuera
- Leonidas Medina
- Luis Andrade Valderrama
- Emilio de Brigard Ortiz
- Luis Pérez Hernández
- José Martinez Vargas
- Gabriel Montalvo Higuera
- Pablo Correa León
- José Calderón Contreras
- Rubén Buitrago Trujillo
- Alfonso López Trujillo
- Luis Parra Mora
- Mario Revollo Bravo
- Víctor López Forero
- Ramón Molina Jaramillo
- Luis Romero Franco
- Jorge Ardila Serrano
- Guillermo Alvaro Ortiz Carrillo
- Enrique Sarmiento Angulo
- Fabio Suescún Mutis
- Agustín Otero Largacha
- José Falla Robles
- Oscar Urbina Ortega
- José Ruiz Arenas
- Fernando Sabogal Viana
- Daniel Caro Borda
- José Ospina Leongómez
- Francisco Nieto Súa
bishops elsewhere
- Eduardo Maldonado Calvo
- Alfredo Rubio Díaz
- Alberto Uribe Urdaneta
- Héctor Luis Gutiérrez Pabón
- Héctor Cubillos Peña
- Mario E. Dorsonville