Bishop José Reginaldo Andrietta

Bishop José Reginaldo Andrietta, Bishop of Jales, was born on March 7, 1957, in Pirassununga, in the Diocese of Limeira and in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and he was baptized in the parish of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Aflitos in Pirassununga on June 16, 1957. He studied philosophy from 1976 to 1979 and theology from 1979 to 1982 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, and he presented a dissertation at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology Nossa Senhora da Assunção in São Paulo in 1998. He was ordained a deacon on October 19, 1982, in the church of São Luiz Gonzaga in the parish of São Benedito at Americana, and he was ordained a priest on March 18, 1983, in the parish of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Aflitos in Pirassununga, being incardinated in the Diocese of Limeira. Much of his priestly ministry was spent accompanying the Young Christian Workers: he was national adviser to the movement in Brazil from 1983 to 1987, national adviser in Argentina from 1986 to 1990, continental adviser for South, Central and North America and the Caribbean, based in Ecuador, from 1991 to 1994, national adviser in the United States, based in Baltimore, from 1997 to 2000, and world adviser of the International Young Christian Workers, based in Brussels, from 2000 to 2006. He was also parochial vicar of the parishes of São Cristóvão and Santa Terezinha in Limeira from 1986 to 1990, parochial vicar of the parishes of Nossa Senhora do Carmo and São Benedito in Americana from 1994 to 1997, and vice-coordinator and studies director of the propaedeutic course and a member of the formation team of the seminary of the Diocese of Limeira from 1994 to 1997. During his years in Belgium he was parochial vicar of the parish of Sagrada Família in Schaerbeek, Brussels, from 2000 to 2003, and of the Kerkebeek pastoral unit from 2003 to 2009. He completed a specialization in catechesis at the Lumen Vitae international institute of catechesis and pastoral ministry in Brussels from 2001 to 2007, a diploma of specialized studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in 2008, and a master's degree in pastoral theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from 2008 to 2009. He was then parish priest of São Judas Tadeu Parish in Americana and ecclesiastical director of its diaconia from 2009 to 2015, professor of pastoral theology at the diocesan centre of theological formation of the Diocese of Limeira from 2011 to 2015, and a member of the presbyteral council of that diocese from 2014 to 2015. On October 21, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Jales. He received episcopal ordination on December 27, 2015, at the shrine basilica of Santo Antônio de Pádua in Americana, with Luiz Demétrio Valentini as principal consecrator and Vilson Dias de Oliveira and José Carlos Brandão Cabral as co-consecrators, and he was installed on January 31, 2016. Besides Portuguese he speaks Spanish, French and English. His episcopal motto is At the service of the common good.