Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada

Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, on June 29, 1919, to a Spanish father and a Mexican mother. He studied in the Seminary of Puebla and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained a priest on October 15, 1942. He returned to Mexico and served as a diocesan priest, a seminary professor, and a curia secretary in Tampico. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Tampico by Pope Pius XII in 1952, and became the bishop of the same diocese in 1956. He attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and was involved in the implementation of its reforms in Mexico. He was transferred to the archdiocese of Antequera in Oaxaca in 1967, and then to the archdiocese of Puebla de los Angeles in 1976. He was elected president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference in 1967, and served until 1973. He also participated in the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1969. In 1977, he was appointed archbishop of Mexico by Pope Paul VI, becoming the primate of Mexico and the custodian of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1979, and assigned the titular church of Mary Immaculate of Tiburtino. He was a member of various congregations and councils of the Roman Curia, and attended the Latin American Episcopal Conference in Puebla in 1979, where he was one of the three presidents. He also attended the Synods of Bishops in 1980, 1983, 1987, and 1990. He retired as archbishop of Mexico in 1994, and was succeeded by Norberto Rivera Carrera. He lost the right to vote in a papal conclave when he turned 80 in 1999. He died on April 10, 2008, in his house in La Noria, Xochimilco, after suffering from deep thrombosis in his left arm. He was buried in the crypt of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. He was remembered as a humble, wise, and faithful pastor, who dedicated his life to the service of the Church and the people of Mexico.