Felipe de Jesús Estévez

Monsignor Felipe de Jesús Estévez, who had been serving as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Miami, USA, has been appointed by the Holy Father as bishop of Saint Augustine, also in the American state of Florida, north of Miami, near Jacksonville, the university city of the State.

According to Church statistics, in a population of almost two million people, Saint Augustine has 171,000 Catholics, served by 136 priests, 118 religious, and 62 permanent deacons. Monsignor Estévez succeeds Monsignor Victor B. Galeone, who had submitted his resignation due to age limit.

Monsignor Estévez was born on February 5, 1946 in Havana, Cuba and came to the United States on a flight of the "Peter Pan" operation [program for sending children from Cuba to the United States] in his adolescence. He is the second of three children (two boys and one girl) of Adriano and Estrella Estévez. He was ordained a priest on May 30, 1970. He was sent to Honduras for the first time as a priest as a member of the faculty of two seminaries (1970-1975).

He has conducted extensive studies in Spiritual Theology, obtaining a doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome. He speaks fluently in English, Spanish, French, and Italian.

From 2001 to 2003, Monsignor Estévez served as spiritual director of the regional seminary San Vicente de Paúl in Boynton Beach, where he had served as rector from 1980 to 1986. He was pastor of Saint Aghata Parish in Miami for 14 years, while also directing pastoral care on the campus of Florida International University.

He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami and Titular Bishop of Kearney on November 21, 2003. [1] On January 7, 2004, he was consecrated bishop at the Cathedral of Santa María Cathedral by Archbishop John Clement Favalora of the Archdiocese of Miami and his co-consecrators were Monsignor Pedro Claro Meurice Estiu of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba and Bishop Thomas James Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix.

In 2010, under the direction of Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Monsignor Estévez was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Miami.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Estévez to succeed the outgoing Bishop of Saint Augustine, Víctor Benito Galeone, in 2011. The appointment was announced in Washington, DC on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to the United States church, and was published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Monsignor Felipe J. Estévez, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami, serves as executive director of pastoral services and lay apostolates which includes new communities and ecclesial/apostolic movements of the Archdiocese of Miami. Pastoral services include prison ministry, university ministry, youth ministry, family ministry, respect for life, ministry to sailors and airport ministry.