Pope appoints Chilean archbishop one year after earthquake

Vatican City, Apr 25, 2011 / 12:06 pm

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Chomali Garib of Santiago, Chile to become Archbishop of Concepcion, one the regions hardest hit by the country's February 2010 earthquake.

“I put myself at your service as your bishop. I am certain that with the grace of God, together with all those in pastoral ministry in the archdiocese, we will be able to carry forward the task of evangelization and the promotion of the dignity of the human being,” the archbishop-elect said in a statement announcing his appointment.
 
Bishop Chomali will succeed Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati, who now leads the Archdiocese of Santiago. One of the archbishop-elect's main tasks will be the rebuilding of churches damaged by the earthquake, as well as overseeing the ongoing aid to the victims of the tragedy.
 
Archbishop-elect Chomali was born in Santiago in 1957. He obtained a degree in Civil Engineering in 1981 and was ordained a priest in 1991.

He went on to study moral theology, receiving a doctorate in Sacred Theology and a master's in bioethics.

Bishop Chomali has been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2001. He currently sits on various committees of the Bishops’ Conference of Chile, including the National Committee for the Reconstruction of Churches, which is charged with rebuilding and repairing the nearly 500 churches damaged during the 2010 earthquake.