Francisco Peralta y Ballabriga


Francisco Peralta y Ballabriga was a Spanish Roman Catholic bishop. At the time of his death, aged 95, he was one of the oldest bishops in the Church and one of the oldest bishops in Spain.

Biography

Lafuente was born in Híjar in 1911 and was ordained a priest on March 28, 1936. He had his first pastoral chargement as parson of Jatiel, Castelnou and La Puebla de Híjar. He was also professor at the seminar and at the University of Zaragoza.
Appointed Bishop of Vitoria on January 9, 1955, he was consecrated on the following March 20 by Archbishop Ildebrando Antoniutti, apostolic nuncio in Spain.
He participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council and promoted in his diocese the liturgical reforms by the Council.
He resigned on July 10, 1978 an died on August 23, 2006, eight days after his was ninety-fifth birthday.