Rodolfo Quezada Toruño

Rodolfo Quezada Toruño (born March 8, 1932) is a Guatemalan prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the current Archbishop of Guatemala City, having previously served as Bishop of Zacapa y Santo Cristo de Esquipulas from 1980 to 2001. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003.
==Biography==
The oldest of three children, Rodolfo Quezada Toruño was born in Guatemala City to René Quezada Alejos and Clemencia Toruño Lizarralde. After studying philosophy at the Seminary of San José in El Salvador, he earned a Licentiate in Theology from the University of Innsbruck in Austria in 1959 and a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1962. Quezada was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Mariano Rossell y Arellano on September 21, 1956. He served as parochial vicar of El Sagrario, rector of Beatas di Belén, university chaplain as well as vice-chancellor of the Archdiocese of Guatemala City. He was the first rector of the National Major Seminary of the Assumption in Guatemala, and named Chaplain of His Holiness on August 18, 1968. He also taught canon law at the Salesian Theological Institute and Rafael Landívar University, and ethics at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala.
On April 5, 1972, Quezada was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Zacapa and Titular Bishop of Gadiaufala by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 13 from Archbishop Girolamo Prigione, with Bishops Costantino Luna Pianegonda, O.F.M., and José Pellecer Samayoa serving as co-consecrators, in the metropolitan cathedral of Santiago. He was named Coadjutor Bishop of Zacapa on September 11, 1975, and later succeeded Bishop Luna Pianegonda as Bishop of Zacapa on February 16, 1980. When the Territorial Prelature of Santo Cristo de Esquípulas was merged with his East Guatemalan diocese on June 24, 1986, he became known as Bishop of Zacapa y Santo Cristo de Esquipulas. He served as President of the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference from 1988 to 1992, and again from 2002 to 2006.
Quezada became a national hero by helping to bring to an end the civil war that devastated his country for 36 years. He led two organizations that played important roles in forming a peace agreement: the National Reconciliation Commission, which he headed from 1987 to 1993, and the Assembly of the Civil Society, which he headed from 1994 to 1996. He was also the official conciliator between the government and the guerrillas of the National Revolutionary Unit (1990-1994). His collaborator in the peace process, Bishop Juan Gerardi, was murdered in April 1998.
On June 19, 2001, Quezada was promoted to Archbishop of Guatemala City by Pope John Paul II. He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Saturnino in the consistory of October 21, 2003. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. Within the Roman Curia, he is a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
==References==
Category:1932 births
Category:Living people
Category:People from Guatemala City
Category:Guatemalan Roman Catholics
Category:Guatemalan cardinals
Category:Cardinals created by Pope John Paul II
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