Manuel Hilario de Céspedes y García Menocal
Bishop Manuel Hilario de Céspedes y García Menocal is the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Matanzas.
Bishop de Céspedes is the great-great grandson of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, and grandnephew of Mario García Menocal, former President of Cuba.
He did his primary and secondary studies with the Marist Brothers at La Vibora, a suburb of Havana and then immigrated to Puerto Rico where he received a doctorate in Electrical Engineering. In 1966, he entered a seminary in Caracas, Venezuela. He was ordained a priest on May 21, 1972. He spent 12 years at the Archdiocese of Caracas and in 1984 was assigned to the Diocese of Pinar del Rio.
He was appointed Bishop of Matanzas on May 7, 2005 and consecrated on June 4, 2005 in the Cathedral of Pinar del Rio by Mons. José Siro González Bacallao, Bishop of the Diocese of Pinar del Rio, and assisted by Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Havana and Mons. Pedro Meurice Estíu, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba.
