Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib

Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, was born on 10 March 1957 in Santiago de Chile. Source fact profile dates: birth 10-03-1957; priestly ordination 06-04-1991; episcopal ordination 03-06-2006. He is the son of Juan Chomali C. and Vitalia Garib A., and has four siblings. He completed his primary and secondary studies at the Alliance Francaise and the Instituto Nacional. After graduating in civil engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in 1981, he entered the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago in 1984 and carried out his studies in philosophy and theology there. He was ordained a priest on 6 April 1991 for the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile by Cardinal Carlos Oviedo Cavada, Archbishop of Santiago. He obtained a licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome in 1993, a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1994, and a master's degree in bioethics from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University in 1998. He has served as parish vicar, episcopal delegate for university pastoral care, professor of moral theology and bioethics in the Faculties of Theology and Medicine of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and in the Major Seminary, parish priest of Santa Maria de la Misericordia, dean of the Manquehue deanery of the Vicariate of the Cordillera Zone, moderator of the Curia, and president delegate of the Economic Council of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. He has been a professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago and the Faculty of Theology of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile since 1995, and since 1997 a professor of theological anthropology, bioethics, and the Magisterium of the Church in the Faculty of Medicine of the same university. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and since 2010 a member of the steering committee of that Vatican academy. In the Episcopal Conference of Chile he has presided over the Doctrinal Commission, the National Bioethics Commission, the National Commission for Church Self-Financing, and the National Commission for the Reconstruction of Churches. He is the author of books and numerous articles, especially on bioethics and business ethics. On 6 April 2006 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him titular bishop of Noba and auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Chile, and he received episcopal consecration the following 3 June from Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, then Apostolic Nuncio in Chile. On 20 April 2011 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Santisima Concepcion. He was appointed Archbishop of Santiago by Pope Francis on 25 October 2023. He has served as vice president of the Episcopal Conference of Chile.