Gregorio Rosa Chávez

Gregorio Rosa Chávez was born in Sociedad, Morazán, on 3 September 1942. He studied at the San José de la Montaña Central Seminary in San Salvador and was ordained a priest on 24 January 1970 in San Miguel Cathedral. He took a licentiate in social communication at Louvain (1973–76), then returned to work under Archbishop Óscar Romero — whom he had known since 1956 — heading the archdiocese's communications operation through the years of repression that ended with Romero's martyrdom in 1980. After Romero's assassination, Rosa Chávez was marginalised: as he later put it, those closest to Romero were ostracized, and the auxiliary bishop was sent to a remote parish.

Appointed auxiliary bishop of San Salvador on 17 February 1982 and consecrated titular Bishop of Mulli on 3 July 1982, he served as auxiliary for forty years — secretary-general of the Central American bishops' secretariat and president of Caritas for Latin America and the Caribbean. On 28 June 2017 Francis created him a cardinal, with the title of Santissimo Sacramento a Tor de' Schiavi: the first cardinal from El Salvador, and the first auxiliary bishop ever raised to the College. He retired as auxiliary on 4 October 2022 and has been a critic of El Salvador's “state of exception” mass detentions, arguing that the means do not justify the ends. His motto is Christus pax nostra — “Christ is our peace.”