Álvaro Corrada del Río


Álvaro Corrada del Río, S.J. is a Puerto Rican prelate of the Roman Catholic Church and member of the Society of Jesus. He served as the second Bishop of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He previously served as the Bishop of Tyler, Texas.

Biography

Early life

Corrada was born in Santurce section of the City of San Juan. He has an older brother, Baltasar Corrada del Río, who served as Mayor of San Juan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and as the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, the non-voting representative of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the United States House of Representatives. After attending the local public schools, he entered the minor seminary of the then Diocese of San Juan in 1955. In 1960 he entered the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, at their novitiate in Poughkeepsie, New York. After completing his initial period of formation and professing his initial religious vows in the Society, he then studied at Fordham University in the Bronx and later Woodstock College in Maryland.
Corrada was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop of Arecibo Miguel Rodriguez Rodriguez, C.Ss.R., on July 6, 1974. He then furthered his studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris in France and, returning to the United States, served as the director of spiritual retreats at Mount Manresa Retreat House on Staten Island, New York. Following that assignment, he served as an assistant pastor at the Jesuit-run Nativity Parish on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, followed by his appointment as the Director of the Northeast Pastoral Center for Hispanics, an inter-diocesan organization coordinating the Catholic Church's ministry to Hispanics.

Auxiliary Bishop of Washington

On May 31, 1985, Corrada was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., with the titular title of Bishop of Rusticiana, by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration the following August 4 from Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, D.C., with Bishops Thomas Lyons and Eugene Marino, S.S.J., serving as co-consecrators, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. He selected as his episcopal motto: Neminem nisi Iesum.
Corrada was later named Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Caguas in Puerto Rico, on July 5, 1997.

Bishop of Tyler

He was appointed the third Bishop of Tyler, Texas, on December 5, 2000, and was installed as such on January 30, 2001.

Bishop of Mayagüez

He was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the office of Bishop of Mayagüez on July 6, 2011, where he was installed September 12 2011. On May 9, 2020, Pope Francis accepted his resignation after reaching the age of 75.

Positions

Corrada was one of the earliest proponents of the Tridentine Mass. Before the issuance of the Apostolic Letter, Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict, he was singled out in an article in The Wanderer, a traditionalist Catholic periodical, as one of the few American bishops "...who have been generous in the Ecclesia Dei indult application, as requested and emphasized repeatedly by the late Pope John Paul II." The others being pointed out were Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska; and Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Illinois.

Episcopal succession