Vicar Apostolic of Mitú
Monsignor Medardo de Jesús Henao del Río, M.X.Y., was born in Liborina, Antioquia, on June 8, 1967. He was ordained a priest on December 4, 1999, by H.E. Monsignor Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo, then Archbishop of Medellín. After completing his basic education in his hometown, he entered the Santo Tomás de Aquino Diocesan Seminary of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos, where he pursued his secondary education and philosophy studies. He joined the Yarumal Foreign Mission Institute on February 1, 1993, and continued his formation at the Institute's seminary. He attended the Pontifical Xavierian University (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), where he obtained a Licentiate in Theology in 2002. He made his first religious profession on December 3, 1994. During his ministry, he has held the following positions: Chancellor and coordinator of contracted education in the Apostolic Vicariate of Mitú (2000–2006) and Novice Master (2010). He was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Mitú by His Holiness Pope Francis on November 23, 2013. He received episcopal ordination on February 15, 2014, alongside Monsignor Carlos Alberto Correa (Apostolic Vicar of Guapi) and Monsignor Joselito Carreño Quiñonez (Apostolic Vicar of Inírida), at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Medellín. Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, Apostolic Nuncio to Colombia, served as the principal ordaining bishop for the ceremony, with Monsignor Fidel León Cadavid Marín (Bishop of Sonsón-Rionegro) and Antonio Bayter Abud (Bishop Emeritus of Inírida) serving as the first co-consecrating bishops. He officially took possession of his assigned apostolic vicariate on March 16 of that same year during a special welcoming Eucharist at the Cathedral of Mary Immaculate.