Bishop José Elías Rauda Gutiérrez

José Elías Rauda Gutiérrez, O.F.M., was born in Agua Caliente, in the Diocese of Chalatenango, on July 20, 1962. He pursued his ecclesiastical studies in Philosophy at the "San Carlos" University in Guatemala and in Theology at the "Francisco Marroquín" University and the Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador. He obtained a Licentiate and subsequently a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University "Antonianum" in Rome. He made his solemn profession as a Franciscan religious on February 28, 1987, and was ordained a priest on April 1, 1989. He has held the following positions: Master of Postulants in San Pedro, Sacatepéquez (Guatemala); Parochial Vicar at the parish of San Pedro in Sacatepéquez (Guatemala); Superior of the San Pedro Community in Sacatepéquez (Guatemala); Pastor of "Reina de la Paz" in Soyapango, in the Archdiocese of San Salvador (El Salvador); Bursar of the "Bosques de Prusia" Fraternity (El Salvador); and, since 2005, Head of the Office for Legal Affairs of the Provincial Curia of the Friars Minor based in Guatemala.