Mbaiki, 10 March, 2021 / 6:18 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has appointed the Auxiliary Bishop of Bangassou Diocese in the Central African Republic (CAR), Comboni Missionary Jesús Ruiz Molina, as the new Local Ordinary of the country’s Mbaiki Diocese.
In the Wednesday, March 10 announcement published by the Holy See Press Office, the Holy Father accepted the retirement of 77-year-old Bishop Guerrino Perin, also a Comboni Missionary, who has been at the helm Mbaiki Diocese since October 1995.
Born in January 1959 in La Cueva de Roa in Spain’s Archdiocese of Burgos, Bishop Molina was ordained a Priest in July 1987.
He was appointed as the Auxiliary Bishop of CAR’s Bangassou Diocese in July 2017 and ordained a Bishop in November the same year at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Bangui Archdiocese, since Bangassou was only reachable by air due to insecurity.
“The 12 parishes we have there have been looted by the 14 armed groups who are fighting to dominate the country. Violence and massacres are a daily affair. The majority of the population is displaced. The majority of the Priests and of the Sisters have fled,” he was Bishop Molina was quoted as saying in an interview three days after his episcopal ordination.