Bishop of Catanduva
Bishop José Benedito Cardoso, Bishop of Catanduva, São Paulo, Brazil, was born on 12 September 1961 in Angatuba, Diocese of Itapetininga, State of São Paulo. He studied philosophy at São Carlos Borromeu Seminary in Sorocaba (1981-1982) and theology at the São Paulo Theological Institute (ITESP) in São Paulo (1983-1986). He obtained a licentiate in canon law at Faculdade de Direito Canônico São Paulo Apóstolo in São Paulo-SP and also studied law at Faculdades Integradas de Itapetininga-SP; the Portuguese official profile also states that he held a bachelor's degree in civil law. On 23 November 1986 he received priestly ordination and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Sorocaba. With the creation of the Diocese of Itapetininga in 1998, separated from Sorocaba, he was incardinated in the new circumscription. He held the following offices: pastor of Bom Jesus in Alambari-SP and parish vicar of Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres in Itapetininga-SP (1987); diocesan chancellor (1998-2010); rector of the diocesan seminary (2004-2006); vicar general (2012-2019, and in the Portuguese source since 2012); pastor of São Roque in Itapetininga (1988-2019, and in the Portuguese source since 1988); member of the presbyteral council and college of consultors; diocesan liturgy coordinator; professor of canon law; judicial vicar and president of the diocesan tribunal; defender of the bond and judge of the interdiocesan ecclesiastical tribunal of Sorocaba. On 23 January 2019 he was appointed titular Bishop of Castellum Minus and Auxiliary Bishop of São Paulo, receiving episcopal ordination on the following 15 March; the Portuguese official profile says the ordination was in Itapetininga on 15 March 2019, with Cardinal Dom Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, as ordaining bishop, and Dom Gorgônio Alves da Encarnação Neto, C.R., Bishop of Itapeteninga, and Dom Edmar Peron, Bishop of Paranaguá (PR), as co-ordaining bishops. Until the source date he was episcopal vicar of the Lapa region of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, and the Portuguese source says he was welcomed in the Lapa episcopal region on 31 March 2019. In CNBB Regional Sul 1 he was bishop referent for basic ecclesial communities, the commission for the defense of life, pastoral care of the land, and religious. Within the Brazilian Episcopal Conference he is a member of the Episcopal Pastoral Commission for the Liturgy.