Bishop Juan Maria Florindo Agurto Muñoz

Bishop Juan Maria Florindo Agurto Muñoz, O.S.M., Bishop of San Carlos de Ancud, Chile, was born in Santiago de Chile on 1959-02-19 (19 February 1959). He is the son of Juan Manuel Agurto and Flora del Carmen Muñoz and is the eldest of four siblings. He was baptized in the parish of Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús in Independencia, Santiago, served by the Servants of Mary, and completed his basic and secondary studies at Santa Teresita school. In February 1977 he entered the Servants of Mary. The Vatican appointment biography records his entrance into the Servite novitiate in Santiago in 1977, while the Chilean Episcopal Conference profile records that he made his novitiate year in Coyhaique in 1980. He completed philosophy studies at the Pontifical Seminary of Santiago and theology studies from 1981 to 1985 in the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he obtained a licentiate in Religious Sciences. On 14 September 1985 he was ordained a deacon in Puerto Aysén by Bishop Bernardo Cazzaro B., then Bishop and Apostolic Vicar of Aysén. He was ordained a priest on 1986-06-28 (28 June 1986) in his parish of origin, Santa Teresita in Santiago, by Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno L., and was assigned to parish ministry. In 1986 and 1987 he worked in youth ministry and rural ministry in the parish of Coyhaique. From 1988 to 1990 he studied in Rome and obtained a licentiate in theology with a specialization in spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and in 1991 he obtained a diploma in Mariology at the Marianum Theological Faculty in Rome. During his stay in Rome he was part of the formation team of the International College of Saint Alessio Falconieri. After returning to Chile in 1990, he taught Mariology and was master of the temporary professed of the Chile-Bolivia Provincial Vicariate of his Order. From 1992 to 1995 he studied pedagogy and obtained a licentiate in education, as a religion teacher for basic and secondary education, at the Catholic University Blas Cañas, today Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez University. He taught Mariology at the same university and was formator of the Servants of Mary theologians in Santiago. In 1996 he was transferred to Coyhaique in the Apostolic Vicariate of Aysén, where he was parish priest of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores; he was also master of novices and a provincial councilor of the Servites. From 1999 he served as pro-vicar general of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aysén. On 22 October 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him coadjutor bishop to Bishop Juan Luis Ysern for the Diocese of San Carlos de Ancud. He was ordained bishop on 2002-01-06 (6 January 2002). The ceremony was presided over by the diocesan bishop of Ancud, Bishop Juan Luis Ysern, assisted by Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, Apostolic Nuncio, and Bishop Aldo Lazzarin, Bishop Emeritus of Aysén. His episcopal motto is "Your will be done."