Romana

On May 8, José Luis Mumbiela, till then rector of the Karaganda seminary, was ordained bishop of the diocese of the Most Holy Trinity in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, was the principal consecrator. Also present at the ceremony were bishops from various countries and more than forty priests. Bishop Mumbiela was born in 1969 in Monzón, Spain, and was ordained a priest in 1995, incardinated in the diocese of Lérida. In 1998 he moved to Kazakhstan.

The new bishop wanted to have St. Josemaría Escrivá included in the singing of the Litanies, in gratitude for the formation he had received in the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, along with the recently beatified John Paul II. He also mentioned both of these figures at the end of the Mass: “St. Josemaría Escrivá often said that we Christians, to find our path to God, should unite ourselves with the head and heart of the Vicar of Christ. That is why I have chosen as my Episcopal motto the words of John Paul II ‘Open wide the doors to Christ,’ words that were later repeated by Pope Benedict XVI.”