Rome,
August 2003
MOST REV. ÓSCAR JOSÉ VÉLEZ CMF
 BISHOP
OF VALLEDUPAR
Colombia On 10 June 2003, L’Osservatore Romano published
the official notice of the appointment by Holy Father John
Paul II of Fr. Óscar José Vélez Isaza,
CMF, provincial of the Claretian Missionaries of Western Colombia,
as Bishop of Valledupar.
Fr. Oscar José was born on 4 November 1951 in Pensilvania
(Colombia). He began his ecclesiastical studies at the Archdiocesan
Major Seminary of St. Joseph in the capital. He then joined
the Missionary Sons of the Heart of Mary, making his first
profession on 2 February 1974. He was ordained a priest in
Bogotá on 14 December 1975.
At the Higher Institute for Religious Life he obtained a Masters
degree in Theology of Religious Life and at the Higher Institute
for Moral Studies, a Masters in Moral Theology. Later, on
his return to Colombia, he obtained a Masters iin education
and religious studies at St. Bonaventure University in Cali.
He exercised his apostolate mainly in education and parish
ministry. Since 1995 he was Provincial Superior of Western
Colombia, the office he held when he received his appointment
as bishop. He is on the governing board of the National Conference
of religious in Colombia and is a member of the Priests’
Council of the Diocese of Medellín.
Fr. Oscar was ordained bishop on 19 July at the Claretian
Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Cali - Colombia, by
Most Rev. Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo, Archbishop of Medellín,
and took possession of the Diocese of Valledupar on 23 August
at a solemn ceremony presided over by Most Rev. Beniamino
Stella, Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia.
As a good son of Fr. Claret, he took as his episcopal motto,
“The Love of Christ Impels Us”.
May the Lord, through the Heart of Mary, make
his new ministry as Shepherd fruitful for the people of Valledupa
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