Bishop of Baucau
Leandro Maria Alves is Bishop of Baucau, Timor-Leste. He was born on 10 May 1974 in Ermera, Archdiocese of Díli. He attended the seminary of Kupang, in Indonesia, and later continued formation at the Seminário Maior de Évora in Portugal, obtaining a baccalaureate in Theology from the Theological Faculty of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. He was ordained a priest on 8 December 2006 for the clergy of Díli. He held the following roles and pursued further studies: vice-parish priest of the Cathedral of Díli from 2006 to 2007 and from 2017 to 2019; formator at the São Pedro and São Paulo Major Seminary from 2008 to 2011; director of the São Paulo Diocesan Foundation of Díli and executive director of the National Commission for Catholic Education of Timor-Leste of the Timorese Episcopal Conference from 2009 to 2014; secretary of the diocesan Presbyteral Council of Díli from 2010 to 2012; rector of the Nossa Senhora de Fátima diocesan minor seminary, Díli, and director of the attached Catholic secondary school from 2011 to 2014; licentiate in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome from 2014 to 2017; president of the Commission for Quality Assurance for Studies of the Dom Jaime Garcia Goulart Higher Institute of Philosophy and Theology (ISFIT) of the Timorese Episcopal Conference from 2017 to 2020; from 2017, professor of Dogmatic Theology at ISFIT in Díli and executive secretary of the Timorese Episcopal Conference (CET); from 2019, president of the Clergy Union of the Archdiocese of Díli; and parish administrator of the Cathedral from 2020 to 2022, of which he became parish priest in 2023.