Bergoglian progressive appointed Archbishop of Madrid

Confirmed: Pope appoints José Cobo as new Archbishop of Madrid

The Holy See has just announced the appointment of José Cobo as the new Archbishop of the Spanish capital, as InfoVaticana reported a few weeks ago.

The 57-year-old from Jaén will replace Cardinal Osoro at the head of Spain's most important diocese after only five years as auxiliary bishop of Madrid.

Although in recent months names such as Fernando Valera, García Beltrán, Cerro Chaves, De las Heras or Argüello have been bandied about, what is already being talked about among the priests of Madrid is that it will be José Cobo Cano, currently auxiliary bishop of Madrid, whom Pope Francis will name as successor to Cardinal Osoro. Although the best positioned was the bishop of Zamora, Varela said no to the Pope to go to Madrid as archbishop.

With this appointment, the Pope is betting on an archbishop with a markedly social and progressive profile, of whom no writings or documents of value or importance are known, since Cobo is currently in charge of the department of Migrations within the EEC. In the summer of 2021, Cobo expressed his disagreement with the return of 'Menas' to Morocco. Pope Francis seems determined to break up the large archdioceses with intellectual profiles, as he did recently with Buenos Aires, in favour of bishops 'with the smell of sheep and from the peripheries'.

The challenges facing the new Archbishop

Cobo will have a long mandate ahead of him, almost 20 years, to shepherd the Church in Madrid. A Church nourished mainly by so-called 'conservative' groups and with a clergy that is jaded and tired after these nine years of Osoro. The new Archbishop of Madrid will have to choose to reconvert and adapt to the reality of the Church in Madrid if he does not want the cracks and disaffection of the clergy and the faithful with the ecclesiastical hierarchy to continue to grow.

In recent days we have seen that Spain is not Germany. The publication and promotion last week of an LGTB event by the archbishopric has provoked an outpouring of criticism letting the ecclesiastical authorities know that Madrid does not want this for its Church.

Furthermore, we cannot forget the key and relevant role played by Monsignor José Cobo during these years in the 'Foundations Case'. As InfoVaticana has been reporting in recent months, José Cobo is aware of everything that has happened with the Foundations of the archbishopric. It should be noted that there is a commission of foundations formed by José Cobo, Fausto Marín, José Luis Bravo and Javier Lapastora who order and decide what is done in each and every one of the foundations. The issue of the Foundations would be one of the causes of the rift between Osoro and Cobo in recent months, due to the different positions that both maintained in order to tackle the problems that were accumulating.

In recent months, Cobo has been the source of information that Rome had in Madrid to keep abreast of everything that was happening with the Foundations. Now everything is in his hands, so we will have to wait and see what Cobo decides to do with Osoro's hard core within the Archbishopric: Fausto Marín, José Luis Bravo, Javier Lapastora and Javier Belda.

Who is José Cobo?

José Cobo Cano was born in Sabiote (Jaén) on 20 September 1965. He graduated in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1988 and entered the seminary in Madrid that same year. He studied Moral Sciences at the Redemptorist Institute, linked to Comillas University. On 23 April 1994 he was ordained priest.

José Cobo, Auxiliary Bishop of Madrid since 2017.

He began his pastoral ministry as vice-joint secretary of the Hermandades del Trabajo de Madrid. From 1995 he was parochial vicar of S. Leopoldo until 2000 when he was appointed parish priest of Saint Alfonso María de Ligorio and member of the Presbyteral Council. In 2001 he was appointed archpriest of Our Lady of the Pilar (Aluche-Campamento) and participated in the II Diocesan Synod as a member of the Permanent Commission. In 2015 he was appointed Episcopal Vicar of Vicariate II, member of the Presbyteral Council and of the Diocesan Pastoral Council, positions he held until his episcopal appointment.

On 29 December 2017 his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Madrid was made public, assigning him the titular see of Beatia (Baeza, Biatiensis), which was under the Metropolitan of Seville. He was ordained bishop on 17 February 2018.

Other interesting facts

In the Spanish Episcopal Conference he has been a member of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral and Human Promotion since March 2020. He has been a member of the Episcopal Commission for Social Pastoral since April 2018.

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