Rubén Salazar Gómez

Jesús Rubén Darío Salazar Gómez was born in Bogotá on 22 September 1942 and studied for the priesthood at Ibagué's Immaculada Concepción seminary and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, taking a licentiate in dogmatic theology (1966). Ordained a priest for Ibagué on 20 May 1967, he took a second licentiate in biblical sciences at the Biblicum (1971) and taught Sacred Scripture at the major seminary for fifteen years. He directed the Colombian bishops' National Secretariat of Social and Pastoral Ministry.

Appointed Bishop of Cúcuta on 11 February 1992 (consecrated 25 March by the nuncio Paolo Romeo), he became Archbishop of Barranquilla in 1999 and, on 8 July 2010, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bogotá — Primate of Colombia — installed on 13 August. Described by colleagues as “very intelligent and able to take a position without making enemies,” he was the Church's hard-working mediator in Colombia's peace process and led the Latin American bishops' council, CELAM, from 2015 to 2019. Benedict XVI created him a cardinal on 24 November 2012, with the title of San Gerardo Maiella; he voted in the 2013 conclave. He retired on 25 April 2020. His motto is Tunc Dixi Ecce Venio — “behold, I have come, as I said.”