Bishop Aurélio Pinto de Sousa

Dom Aurélio Pinto de Sousa was born on November 12, 1974, in the city of Guaraciaba do Norte, Ceará. He is the second child of Antônio Pinto de Sousa and Maria das Graças de Sousa. He completed his secondary education at the Dom Pedro I Municipal School in Guaraciaba do Norte in 1993. In 1994, he entered the São José Seminary in Tianguá, Ceará, where he completed the propaedeutic stage. Between 1995 and 1997, he studied Philosophy at the Pastoral Theological Institute of Ceará (ITEP) in Fortaleza; his degree was subsequently validated by the State University of Ceará (UECE). From 1998 to 2000, he pursued a Bachelor's degree in Theology at the Center for Higher Studies of the Society of Jesus (now the Jesuit Faculty). Subsequently, from 2001 to 2003, he completed a Master's degree in Theology at the same institution. He was ordained a deacon on March 19, 2003, and a priest on July 12, 2003, by Dom Francisco Javier Hernández Arnedo, OAR, the then-Bishop of Tianguá. In 2007, he undertook a specialization course in Priestly Formation at the Saint Thomas Aquinas Institute in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. In 2009, he began doctoral studies in Dogmatic-Sacramental Theology at the Pontifical Atheneum of Saint Anselm in Rome. Among his ecclesiastical activities, he served as Rector of the Dom Timóteo Theology Seminary in Fortaleza from 2003 to 2008. In 2009, he served as parochial vicar at Saint Anne's Cathedral in Tianguá. Upon returning to Brazil after his doctoral studies, he assumed the role of administrator of the São Pedro Pastoral Area (2014–2016) and also served as parish priest of São Pedro Parish (2016–2022) in Tianguá. In early 2023, he was appointed parish priest of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in the city of Viçosa do Ceará. He also served as a member of the Presbyteral Council, ecclesiastical assistant for the Liturgical Pastoral, and a representative of the clergy. Since 2003, he had been a professor of Liturgy, Sacraments, and Mariology at the Catholic College of Fortaleza. On May 10, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of the Diocese of Quixadá (Ceará). His episcopal ordination took place on July 15, 2023, at the Cathedral of Saint Anne in Tianguá; the ordaining bishops were Dom José Antônio Aparecido Tosi Marques (Archbishop of Fortaleza), Dom Francisco Edimilson Neves Ferreira, and Dom Francisco Javier Hernández Arnedo, OAR—the Diocesan Bishop and Bishop Emeritus of Tianguá, respectively. Dom Aurélio chose "Pascite gregem Dei" (1 Peter 5:2) as his episcopal motto. On August 5, 2023, during a solemn Eucharistic celebration at the Cathedral of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he was installed as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Quixadá.