Bishop of Islas Canarias
José Mazuelos Pérez was born in Osuna (Seville) on October 9, 1960. Before beginning his ecclesiastical studies, he earned a degree in Medicine (1983) and practiced as a physician in his hometown and, during his military service, at the San Carlos Military Hospital in San Fernando (Cádiz). In 1985, he entered the seminary in Seville and was ordained a priest on March 17, 1990. He holds a Licentiate (1995) and a Doctorate (1998) in Moral Theology from the Alphonsian Academy (Pontifical Lateran University) in Rome. During his time in Rome, he also completed an advanced course in Bioethics at the Gemelli Faculty of Medicine and assisted at the Santa Francesca Cabrini parish in the Italian capital. His first priestly assignment was as pastor of the rural parish of San Isidro Labrador in El Priorato de Lora del Río, from 1990 to 1993. He subsequently moved to Rome for further studies; upon his return to Seville in 1998, he was appointed pastor of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves in Benacazón and deputy director of the religious assistance service at the University of Seville, serving as its director from 2000 to 2009. During these years, he also served as the diocesan delegate for University Pastoral Care. In 2002, he was appointed Penitentiary Canon of the cathedral. In the field of education, during the 2003–2004 academic year, Mazuelos Pérez taught in the Master’s program in Bioethics at the University of the Canary Islands and taught Moral Theology as part of the systematic training program for religion teachers in Seville. From 2003 to 2005, he taught Moral Theology at the Center for Theological Studies in Seville and taught the subject at the San Juan de Ávila Theological Institute and the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the Diocese of Jerez de la Frontera; he was also a visiting professor for the Licentiate program in Moral Theology at the San Dámaso Faculty in Madrid and an assistant professor at the Redemptoris Mater Faculty of Theology in Callao (Peru). On March 19, 2009, he was appointed Bishop of Jerez de la Frontera by Pope Benedict XVI, and on June 6, 2009, he was consecrated bishop in the diocesan cathedral. On July 6, 2020, his appointment as Bishop of the Canary Islands was announced; he took possession of the see on October 2.