Jaime Spengler

Jaime Spengler . (Born 6 September 1960) is a Franciscan friar and Brazilian Catholic prelate, current metropolitan archbishop of Porto Alegre and president for the quadrennium 2023–2027 of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil and the Latin American Episcopal Council.

Biography

The first child, among four, of the couple descended from the first German settlers Genésio Bernardo and Léa Maria Spengler, was born on September 6, 1960 in the city of Gaspar in the state of Santa Catarina. At the age of 14, he started working at the company Linhas Círculo, where he worked for five years. He entered the Order of Friars Minor on January 20, 1982, when he was admitted to the Novitiate in the city of Rodeio.

He made his Solemn Profession on September 8, 1985; in the years 1986 and 1987 he studied Philosophy at the São Boaventura Philosophical Institute in Campo Largo, later he studied Theology first at the Franciscan Theological Institute of Petrópolis, in Rio de Janeiro and then concluded at the Jerusalem Theological Institute in Israel where, in 1990, he obtained the specialization in Holy Scriptures. He received diaconal ordination on June 29, 1989, in the city of Nazareth, in Israel. Returning to Brazil, he was ordained a priest on December 17, 1990.

From 1991 to 1995 he was master of postulants and professor at the Frei Galvão Seminary, in the city of Guaratinguetá, in São Paulo. In Rome, he completed his doctorate in Philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum, from 1995 to 1998. From 2000 to 2003 he was vice-rector and professor at the São Boaventura Philosophical Institute, in the city of Campo Largo, in Paraná; was ecclesiastical assistant to the Brazilian Federation of Concepcionist Sisters, in 2001 and 2002; local superior and vicar of the Bom Jesus Parish, in the Archdiocese of Curitiba, from 2004 to 2006.

In 2010, Dom Jaime took over as guardian of the Fraternidade de Bom Jesus dos Perdões, in Curitiba, in addition to being vice-president of the Associação Franciscana de Ensino Bom Jesus de Campo Largo and working as a teacher in the Philosophy Course.

On November 10, 2010, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, titular bishop of Patara and auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre. Dom Jaime was ordained bishop on February 5, 2011 in the São Pedro Apostolo Parish, in the city of Gaspar in the state of Santa Catarina by Dom Lorenzo Baldisseri, Apostolic Nuncio in Brazil.

On March 13, 2011, he took office as Episcopal Vicar of the Vicariate of Gravataí at the Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora dos Anjos.

During the 49th Annual Assembly of the Brazilian Episcopate in Aparecida do Norte in May 2001, he was chosen among the bishops of Rio Grande do Sul to be the Reference Bishop for the Pastoral Care of Education and Culture in the South-3 Region of the CNBB.