Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez

Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez was born on 13 March 1952 in Valle Santiago, Guanajuato, in the diocese of Irapuato. He entered the Morelia archdiocesan seminary at 11, was ordained a priest on 25 July 1975, incardinated in Morelia, and took a licentiate in science of education at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. As a priest he was professor and formator at the Minor Seminary of Morelia (1975-1979) and the Major Seminary (1979-1984), spiritual director of Introductory Course seminarians (1988-1992) and of Philosophy seminarians (1992-1997), secretary to the Archbishop of Morelia, secretary of the presbyteral council, rector of the St. Joseph Shrine, and assistant of 'Encuentros Matrimoniales'. On 28 May 1997 John Paul II erected the Diocese of Matehuala from San Luis Potosí and Ciudad Valles, suffragan of San Luis Potosí, and named him its first bishop; he was ordained bishop on 31 July 1997 (consecrator Nuncio Justo Mullor García, elorbe press tier only). On 28 January 2006 Benedict XVI named him Bishop of Tehuacán, and he took possession on 30 March 2006.

On 3 November 2017 Francis appointed him Bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, succeeding Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, after the coadjutor with right of succession, Enrique Díaz Díaz, had been transferred to Irapuato instead of succeeding; he took possession on 3 January 2018. From 27 November 2023 to 25 April 2025 he was also Apostolic Administrator of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the neighbouring San Cristóbal bishop administering the vacant archdiocese after Fabio Martínez Castilla's death, until José Francisco González González took possession; the administration does not affect his San Cristóbal tenure. His auxiliary at San Cristóbal from 2020 to 2025 was Luis Manuel López Alfaro, now Bishop of Tapachula. His episcopal motto, in his own words with his gloss, is 'Servir y dar la vida': chosen on the day the Nuncio told him the Pope was naming him Bishop of Tehuacán, from the Matthew Gospel text of that day, as authority exercised as service, giving one's life day by day. In the CEM he was vocal of Seminarios y Vocaciones (1997-2000), President of Pastoral Familiar (2000-2006, with Bajío representation to the Permanent Council), responsible for the Dimensión de Familia and president of Familia, Juventud y Laicos (2006-2009), and responsible for the Dimensión de Vida (2009-2015), and he is President of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Communion for the triennium 2024-2027, continuous from the June 2023 directorio. He was still Bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas at as_of; he turns 75 on 13 March 2027, and no successor was named as of 20 October 2026.

As San Cristóbal bishop he wrote on 23 September 2023 about cartel violence tearing the south of Mexico, and he publicly explained the 8 November 2024 recognitio of inculturated adaptations to the reformed rite for his diocese (rhythmic movements, women incensers, a lay 'principal' directing parts of communal prayer); that recognitio was coordinated by his predecessor Arizmendi, it concerns the reformed rite, not the 1962 Missal, and it is never coded as a Traditionis custodes act. On 20 October 2026 he presided at the second-anniversary Mass for Fr. Marcelo Pérez Pérez, murdered on 20 October 2024, after a pilgrimage of about five thousand people for justice and peace.