Joan Enric Vives i Sicília


Joan-Enric Vives i Sicília, GCC is the current Bishop of Urgell, a Catholic diocese, and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He holds the rank of archbishop and monarch.

Life

Vives i Sicília was born in 1949 in Barcelona as the third son of Francesc Vives i Pons and of Cornèlia Sicília Ibáñez, who were small retailers. He entered the Seminary in 1965 and studied Humanities, Philosophy and Theology. In 1974, Vives was ordained a priest in his native parish Santa Maria del Taulat de Barcelona. Father Vives i Sicília was later nominated as Auxiliary Bishop of Barcelona in 1993, and consecrated to the episcopacy and automatically became a member of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. Pope John Paul II nominated him as Coadjutor Bishop of Urgell in 2001. After two years, on the retirement of his predecessor Joan Martí Alanis in 2003, he succeeded him as Bishop of Urgell on 12 May 2003, and hence therefore as Co-Prince of Andorra in the Principality of Andorra located in the heights of the Pyrenees Mountains. On 10 July 2003, he carried out the Constitutional Oath as the new Co-Prince of Andorra at "Casa de la Vall", Andorra la Vella. Vives i Sicília was later elevated to the dignity of an Archbishop as a personal title by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010.

Foreign honours