Pope Francis has appointed Father José María Avendaño Perea as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Getafe. His mother, Jorja Perea, who died in 2015, is in the process of beatification.
"A mother is always attentive to her children, and my mother must have interceded," the priest stated during a press conference regarding his appointment.
A native of Villanueva de Alcardete in the Spanish province of Toledo, Avendaño has served as Vicar General and Vicar for Clergy in the Diocese of Getafe, to which he has belonged since its establishment in 1991.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Madrid in 1987. Since the creation of the diocese where he will now serve as auxiliary bishop, he has carried out a significant portion of his pastoral work in the city of Leganés, where he served as Archpriest.
Since 2018, he has been the Episcopal Advisor to the General Council of Caritas in Spain.
The diocesan phase of the cause for his mother's beatification was opened on July 21 in the Archdiocese of Toledo. Avendaño himself has said that she "did not know how to read, but she knew the Gospel."
The Church is examining the possible intercession of Jorja Perea in certain cases of inexplicable healings from illnesses.
Born in 1928 and orphaned at a young age, she married Cándido Avendaño at the age of 25. The couple had five children.
The holy card distributed by the Diocese of Getafe for private devotion noted that "simplicity and humility are the marks the Holy Spirit left on her soul" and that "the sick, the needy, and the poor always found compassion and mercy in her heart."
Perhaps for this reason, but also inspired by the papal motto of Blessed John Paul I, the episcopal motto chosen by Avendaño is "Caritas et humilitas" (charity and humility).
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His episcopal consecration is scheduled for November 26 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Cerro de los Ángeles.
This article was originally published in English by Catholic World Report ( Article Link ). It is republished and translated with the author's permission.