Роберто Гонсалес: Францискан ділі және католик архиепископы

Franciscan friar and archbishop

Roberto Octavio González Nieves, O. F. M. (born June 2, 1950) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Juan in Puerto Rico since 1999. González previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston in Massachusetts from 1988 to 1995, and as bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi in Texas from 1997 to 1999 after two years as coadjutor. He devoted his first decade as a priest to pastoral work in the Bronx borough of New York City.

Roberto González was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on June 2, 1950, to Puerto Rican parents. His father was a graduate of Seton Hall. He moved with his family to San Juan and grew up in a parish staffed by Franciscans. He has described himself as "a child of the Puerto Rican diaspora, my emotional and primary homeland". From 1957 to 1964 he attended Academia Santa Monica in Santurce, a district of San Juan, and then began his priestly formation at St. Joseph Seraphic Minor Seminary in Callicoon, New York, from 1964 to 1968. He graduated from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, in 1973 with a B. A. in English. González was accepted as a candidate for the Franciscans at Christ House in Lafayette, New Jersey, in 1970 and he entered the novitiate of the Order at St. Francis Friary in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1971. González professed his first vows on 25 August 1974 and his solemn vows on 21 August 1976.

On May 8, 1977, González was ordained a priest for the Franciscans by Lorenzo Graziano, Bishop Emeritus of San Miguel in El Salvador, himself a Franciscan. Beginning in 1982, González served at St. Pius V Parish and then from 1986 to 1988 at Holy Cross Parish, both in the Bronx. In 1987, New York City Mayor Ed Koch included González as one of his six appointees to the New York City Police Review Panel.

On July 19, 1988, Pope John Paul II appointed González an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston and titular bishop of Ursona. He received his episcopal consecration in Boston on October 3, 1988, from Cardinal Bernard Law, with two cardinals as co consecrators: John O'Connor of New York and Luis Aponte Martínez of San Juan. On May 16, 1995, González was appointed coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi in Texas by John Paul II. On April 1, 1997, he succeeded as bishop of the diocese upon the retirement of Bishop René Gracida. He served on two committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Hispanic Affairs and the Church in Latin America.

González has received honorary doctorates from St. Bonaventure University (New York), Universidad Central de Bayamón (Puerto Rico), Siena College (New York), and the Graduate Theological Foundation (Puerto Rico). Regis College in Massachusetts awarded him its Presidential Medal in 2000. Fordham awarded him its Sapientia et Doctrina award in recognition of his contributions to Hispanic ministry in 2009.