Francisco González Valer

Background

One of five children, Francisco González Valer was born in Arcos de Jalón in the province of Soria, Spain.

Education

Master of Education, Catholic University America, Washington, 1967.

Career

He currently serves as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. He then came to the United States to study theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, District of Columbia, from where he also obtained an Master of Arts in comparative international education in 1967. On May 1, 1964, he was ordained a priest by Bishop John Jay Russell in Richmond, Virginia.

González then held pastoral assignments in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, where he served as Advocate and Pro-Synodal Judge at the Marriage Tribunal.

He taught and did pastoral work in his native Spain from 1975 to 1976, and was pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church in Greeley, Colorado, from 1982 to 1983. From 1986 to 1996, González was director of Hispanic, Cursillo, and Charismatic movements in the Archdiocese of Washington.

He taught at the Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington (1969-1971), and Saint John"s School in Frederick (1984-1986). He was appointed Coordinator of the Hispanic Family Life Office in 1992, and Episcopal Vicar for Hispanic Catholics in 1997.

Since 1993, he has written a weekly award-winning column for El Pregonero newspaper.

His congregation elected him on three occasions as a delegate to their General Chapters. He received his episcopal consecration on February 11, 2002 from Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, with James Cardinal Hickey and Bishop Leonard Olivier, South.V.D., serving as co-consecrators.

Achievements

• Francisco González Valer has been listed as a noteworthy bishop by Marquis Who's Who.