Orani João Tempesta

Who is Orani João Tempesta?

Orani João Tempesta O. Cist. is the current Metropolitan Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro. He was appointed to that office by Pope Benedict XVI on 27 February 2009, and took possession of the See on 19 April 2009.

Tempesta was born in São José do Rio Pardo, in the Diocese of São João da Boa Vista.

After completing his elementary and lower secondary-school studies in São José do Rio Pardo, he entered the Cistercian monastery of São Bernardo in the same city in 1967. He studied philosophy at the monastery of São Bento in São Paulo, and theology at the Salesian Theological Institute of Pius IX in São Paulo.

He made his religious profession in the Order of Cistercians on 2 February 1969 and was ordained priest on 7 December 1974.

In 1984 he became Prior of his monastery, while also acting as Parish Priest of the Parish of São Roque, as Diocesan Coordinator of Communications and Pastoral Care, and as professor at the Coração de Maria institute in São João da Boa Vista. In September 1996, when the monastery of São Bernardo became an abbacy, he was elected the first abbot.

On 26 February 1997 he was appointed Bishop of São José do Rio Preto and received episcopal ordination on 25 April of that year. In addition he was Apostolic Administrator of the territorial abbacy of Claraval from 1999 until it was united with the Diocese of Guaxupé on 11 December 2002.