Archbishop Eduardo José Castillo Pino

Eduardo Jose Castillo Pino is Archbishop of Portoviejo, Ecuador. He was born in Guayaquil on 21 March 1970 and is the eldest of four siblings. He spent most of his priestly formation in Rome, received priestly ordination in Guayaquil on 20 November 1994, and was incardinated in that archdiocese. As a priest he served as secretary to the Archbishop of Guayaquil and parish vicar of the cathedral (1994-1996). He was director of studies and formator at the Major Seminary of Guayaquil. He obtained a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in 2000 and deepened his work in patrology, Christian antiquity, contemporary theology, liturgy, and postmodern culture. He taught philosophy, dogmatic theology, and the Greek and Latin languages at the Major Seminary of Guayaquil, and published books and articles on theological, historical, catechetical, and priestly-formation themes. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Portoviejo, with the title of Tarasa in Byzacena, on 14 March 2012, and received episcopal ordination on 1 June in the Cathedral of Portoviejo. In the Archdiocese of Portoviejo he had the functions of vicar general, particularly for the North-Manabi zone. In the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference he was president of the Episcopal Commission for Ministries and Consecrated Life, and he was president of the Subcommission for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2014. He was also director of the Center for Ethics and Social Thought of the Catholic Church (CEPSIC) in 2015 and professor of philosophy and theology at the San Pedro Major Seminary of Portoviejo. The source also states that Pope Francis appointed him the third archbishop of Portoviejo and that he was to take possession on Saturday, 30 November, in La Merced Church in the Manabi capital.