At 103 years of age, Mexican Bishop Emeritus José de Jesús Sahagún de la Parra is a living witness to the history of the Catholic Church. Source: CNA.
He is the world’s oldest bishop, still celebrates the Eucharist, and is one of only four surviving bishops who participated in the Second Vatican Council.
He was born in Cotija, a small and humble town in the state of Michoacán, in 1922 and ordained a priest on May 26, 1946.
Fifteen years after his priestly ordination, St Pope John XXIII appointed him the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Tula in the state of Hidalgo.
For 24 years, he was a pillar of the diocese, until in 1985 when St Pope John Paul II called him to a new challenge: to be the first bishop of the Diocese of Lázaro Cárdenas.
With the same dedication with which he had served in Hidalgo, he returned to his home state of Michoacán to shepherd a growing community, where he remained until 1993, the year he was allowed to retire.
Since then, his life has been lived in the tranquillity of a home for nuns in Michoacán.
In 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. Despite having been a bishop for only one year, Bishop Emeritus Sahagún de la Parra was called to participate.
He attended three of the four sessions of the council, which opened on October 11, 1962, in St. Peter’s Basilica with more than 2,000 council fathers from around the world.
Currently, only four council fathers are still alive; in addition to Bishop Emeritus Sahagún de la Parra, they are Archbishop Emeritus Victorinus Youn Kong-hi of Gwangju, South Korea (aged 100) and Bishop Emeritus Daniel Verstraete of Klerksdorp, South Africa (aged 100); and Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (aged 92).
Bishop Emeritus Sahagún de la Parra’s daily life takes place in the serenity of his home, carefully cared for by the Diocesan Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels in Michoacán.
While the bishop does not grant interviews or receive visitors, the nuns shared that the prelate ”celebrates the Eucharist daily. It’s one of the reasons that has kept him strong and joyful.”
FULL STORY
World’s oldest bishop celebrates 103 years of faith and service (By Diego López Colín, CNA)
