Bishop José Cayetano Parra Novo

Bishop José Cayetano Parra Novo, O.P., was born on 5 September 1950 in Otívar, metropolitan archdiocese of Granada, Spain. In 1967 he entered the Order of Preachers of Valencia and gave his religious vows on 13 October 1974. He carried out his studies in theology, catechesis and pedagogy at the C.E.N.I.E.C. of the Episcopal Commission for Education of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, based in the archdiocesan seminary of Valencia. In 1976 he went as a missionary to Alta Verapaz in Guatemala. He concluded his basic theological formation at the Instituto Teológico Salesiano of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City. He was ordained a priest on 28 October 1979. He subsequently held, on various occasions, the office of parish priest and local superior of the Dominican community. In 1993, while he was parish priest of San Martín de Porres in Guatemala City, he founded the Fundación San Martín de Porres for the promotion of educational and social projects in the disadvantaged regions of Verapaz and Quiché. In 1994 he was awarded a licentiate in theology from the Instituto Teológico Salesiano of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín. In 2001 he was appointed as parish priest of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Santa Ana, El Salvador. From 2002 to 2012 he was again parish priest of San Martín de Porres and from 2012 to 2016, rector of the Church of San Agustín in Guatemala City. On 11 November 2016 he was appointed as titular bishop of Tubia and auxiliary of Santiago de Guatemala, and received episcopal ordination on 21 January 2017.