Archbishop of Braga
José Manuel Garcia Cordeiro was born on May 29, 1967, in Vila Nova de Seles, in the Diocese of Sumbe, Angola. In 1975, he moved with his parents and siblings to Parada, Alfândega da Fé, Portugal; he attended the Minor Seminary of the Diocese of Bragança-Miranda in Vinhais and Bragança, and the Major Seminary of Porto, pursuing philosophical and theological studies at the Porto regional center of the Catholic University of Portugal. He was ordained a priest on June 16, 1991, in the church of St. Joseph Seminary in Bragança. From 1991 to 1999, he served as a parish priest for several parishes, spiritual director at the Diocesan Seminary of Bragança, chaplain of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, and was responsible for other pastoral services (permanent diaconate, vocations, and youth ministry). From 1999 to 2001, he studied at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of the Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm in Rome, obtaining a Licentiate in Liturgy, and in 2004, he earned a Doctorate in Liturgy. From 2001 to 2005, he was Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Portuguese College in Rome, and from 2005 to 2011, he served as Rector of the same college. From 2004 to 2011, he taught at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Saint Anselm in Rome and at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. On July 18, 2011, he was appointed Bishop of Bragança-Miranda, receiving episcopal ordination on October 2, 2011. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Within the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, he serves as President of the Episcopal Commission for Liturgy and Spirituality and, since 2018, as Delegate to the International Eucharistic Congresses; from 2017 to 2023, he was a member of the Permanent Council. On December 3, 2021, he was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Braga. His pastoral ministry at the Primatial See began on February 12, 2022, with the celebration of Vespers, followed the next day by the solemn celebration of the Eucharist. By virtue of his mission as Metropolitan Archbishop of Braga, he is a member of the Higher Council of the Catholic University of Portugal and the National Council of the Shrine of Fátima.