Background
The third of four children, Octavio Cisneros was born in Las Villas, a province of Cuba, to Roberto Cisneros and Olga Lezcano.
The third of four children, Octavio Cisneros was born in Las Villas, a province of Cuba, to Roberto Cisneros and Olga Lezcano.
He studied under the Piarist Fathers as a child and, while a high school student in October 1961, came to the United States as a political refugee as part of Operation Peter Pan. Relocated to Marquette, Michigan, he attended Saint Paul High School in Negaunee. Cisneros then studied at Saint Lawrence Minor Seminary in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, from where he obtained an Associate of Arts degree, and at Niagara University, earning a Bachelor"s degree.
He currently serves as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, and is also Titular Bishop of Eanach Dúin. He and his family moved to Havana shortly after his birth. He studied theology at DeSales School of Theology in Washington, District of Columbia and at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, New York, earning a master"s in divinity degree.
Cisneros was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Francis Mugavero on May 29, 1971.
Foreign the first eight years of his priesthood, he served as parochial vicar at Saint Michael"s Church in Sunset Park. His subsequent appointments were as an Episcopal Vicar in the Brooklyn East Vicariate and as rector of the Cathedral Seminary in Douglaston.
He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness by Pope John Paul II in 1988. In 2004, he was named Secretary for Priestly Formation in the diocesan chancery.
On June 6, 2006, Cisneros was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn and Titular Bishop of Eanach Dúin by Pope Benedict XVI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 22 from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, with Bishops Thomas Daily and Ignatius Catanello serving as co-consecrators.
He serves as vice-postulator (or promoter) of the Cause for Canonization (Sainthood) of the Venerable Servant of God Félix Varela, a 19th-century bridge-building Cuban priest who worked for closer bonds among Cubans and between Cuba and the United States. and their citizenries. Bishop Cisneros serves as Pastor of the Parish of the Holy Child Jesus, in Richmond Hill, New New York
Founding member, president Felix Varela Foundation, since 1984. Board governors Immaculate Conception Seminary. Member of Conference Diocesan Directors for Spanish Apostolate (president, member bishop's committee on liturgy, member pastors' advisory committee).