Carlos Briseño Arch

Carlos Briseño Arch, O.A.R., was born in Mexico City on 4 July 1960. He knew the Recollect Augustinians in childhood and adolescence, entered the minor seminary San Pío X in Querétaro in 1978, made his novitiate at Marcilla in Navarra, Spain, in 1979, and studied philosophy and theology at the Centre for Philosophical and Theological Studies of the Recollect Augustinians, associated with the University of Navarra; he made temporary vows in 1980 and perpetual vows on 13 October 1985, was ordained deacon on 7 November 1985, and was ordained a priest on 27 September 1986 in Querétaro by Msgr. Justo Goizueta, O.A.R., Bishop of Chihuahua. He obtained a licentiate in spiritual theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. As a priest he was parochial vicar in Ciudad Madero, Chihuahua, 1986-1988; vocational promoter of the order in Querétaro, 1988-1994; in Rome at the Collegio Internazionale Sant'Ildefonso from 1994; pastoral vicar at the Templo de Santa Mónica in Mexico City, 1996-1997; pastor of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Hospitales in the Doctores district and chaplain of the Hospital Infantil Siglo XXI and the Hospital General from 1997; Prior of the Comunidad Agustina San Pío X in Querétaro in 2003; and Director General of the Colegio Fray Luis de León, 2004-2006. He is a Recollect Augustinian, not diocesan clergy, and that is bio prose only, because the corpus carries societies as an empty list in every dossier.

On 20 May 2006 he was appointed titular bishop of Tricala and auxiliary bishop of Mexico, and he was consecrated bishop on 17 June 2006, so the auxiliary tenure codes from consecration. He was entrusted with the first vicariate of the archdiocese, then from 26 March 2009 was responsible for the second vicar. In the CEM he was a member of the Permanent Council for the ecclesiastical province of Mexico in 2006-2009; responsible for the Dimension for the Care of Cultural Goods in the Episcopal Commission for Liturgical Pastoral Care, and reelected to the Permanent Council, in 2009-2012; and president of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Communion in 2015-2018 and again in 2018-2021. On 12 November 2018, on the resignation of Luis Felipe Gallardo Martín del Campo, S.D.B., he was appointed Bishop of Veracruz, and he took canonical possession of Veracruz on 10 January 2019, roster-exact, so the Mexico auxiliary tenure closes at that possession under the transfer-close rule and the Veracruz tenure opens at that possession. He was still Bishop of Veracruz at as_of: he turned 66 on 4 July 2026, and no resignation acceptance or successor news surfaced; in the CEM he was checked against the Prot. 314/24 comunicado for the triennium 2024-2027 and is NOT listed there, checked-and-absent from that document, not no commission ever. In September 2021 he spoke publicly for migrants passing through Veracruz, asking that they be treated with dignity and solidarity; the diocese had enabled the Casa del Migrante in Tierra Blanca and the Casa Santa Ana Shelter in Boca del Río, and on 19 September 2021, the day he made the statements, 71 migrants were detained in Los Tuxtla, Veracruz. That is pastoral advocacy, bio prose only, never a controversy and never a Traditionis custodes act.

His titular see is Tricala per the bulletin; Catholic-Hierarchy's 'Trecalae' is the Latin genitive rendering of the same see and the diocesan bio's 'Trecala' is a typo variant, never a different see; and the diocesan bio's phrase naming him 'Obispo Titular de la Diocesis de Veracruz' is loose wording, he was named diocesan bishop of Veracruz, never titular. The current Diocese of Veracruz, erected 9 June 1962 and suffragan of Jalapa, is distinct from the historic Veracruz-Jalapa archdiocese, now Xalapa.