Bishop of Vila Real
Bishop António Augusto de Oliveira Azevedo, Bishop of Vila Real, was born on June 14, 1962, in São Pedro de Avioso, in the municipality of Maia and in the Diocese of Porto. He studied at the diocesan seminaries of Porto, at the Institute of Human and Theological Sciences of Porto and at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Portugal, and he pursued further studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 2000 to 2003. He was ordained a priest on July 13, 1986, in the cathedral of Porto. He served as parochial vicar of São Tirso from 1986 to 1988 and as a military chaplain in the air force from 1988 to 1990, and in 1989 he became spiritual counsellor of the Teams of Our Lady. From 1990 to 2000 he was parish priest of Vilar do Paraíso, in Vila Nova de Gaia, while also serving as chaplain to the workers' pastoral ministry of Porto. From 2003 he has been a member of the faculty of theology of the Catholic University of Portugal, and he was at the same time prefect and professor at the major seminary of Porto until 2016. He was a judge of the ecclesiastical tribunal of Porto from 2004, chaplain of the Porto regional centre of the Catholic University of Portugal from 2004 to 2012, diocesan assistant of the marriage preparation centre from 2005 to 2019, rector of the major seminary of Porto from 2012, and from 2015 responsible for the accompaniment of newly ordained priests. On January 9, 2016, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Porto and Titular Bishop of Cemerinianus. He received episcopal ordination on March 19, 2016, in the cathedral of Porto, with António Francisco dos Santos as principal consecrator and António Augusto dos Santos Marto and António Maria Bessa Taipa as co-consecrators. On May 11, 2019, he was appointed Bishop of Vila Real, and he was installed on June 30, 2019. He served as president of the episcopal commission for vocations and ministries until April 2023.