Antonio Ignacio Velasco Garcia

Antonio Ignacio Velasco Garcia Cardinal SDB ( born January 17, 1929 in Acarigua, Venezuela, † July 6, 2003 in Caracas ) was Archbishop of Caracas from 1995 to 2003.

Life

Antonio Ignacio Velasco Garcia, took in 1944 the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Los Teques in and took off in 1945 professed. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Salesian University ( UPS ) in Turin and Rome. In Rome he received on 17 December 1955, the ordination. He was rain the seminaries in Valera ( 1964-67 ), Los Teques ( 1967-72 ) and Valencia ( 1979-84 ). From 1972 to 1978 he was Provincial of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Venezuela, in 1984 he was Superior General of the Pacific Caribbean Region of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

He was appointed by Pope John Paul II, titular bishop of Utimmira and Vicar Apostolic of Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela ordered, 1989. He received his episcopal consecration, Pope John Paul II himself; Co-consecrators were the deputy head of the State Secretariat and later Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, and the secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Archbishop Miroslaw Marusyn. 1992 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of of San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela. 1995 he was appointed Archbishop of Caracas.

On 21 February 2001, Pope John Paul II was a cardinal priest with the title Diakonia Santa Maria Domenica Mazzarello to the College of Cardinals.