José Luis Escobar Alas

Who is José Luis Escobar Alas?

José Luis Escobar Alas is the eleventh Bishop and seventh Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador. He succeeds Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Sáenz Lacalle in that position, and holds the post once held by Archbishop Óscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980.

When Archbishop Escobar was appointed on December 27, 2008, he was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Vicente, El Salvador. He had been bishop of San Vicente since 2005, and auxiliary bishop since 2002. He was ordained a priest in 1982. Escobar was born in the town of Suchitoto in the department of Cuzcatlán. He studied for the priesthood at the San José de la Montaña seminary in San Salvador and in the Major Seminary in Morelia, Mexico. He obtained a degree in philosophy at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1982.

Thereafter, he served as rector of the minor diocesan seminary in San Vicente, taught at the San José de la Montaña seminary in San Salvador, and then was put in charge of the Nuestra Señora del Pilar parish in San Vicente. Escobar was vicar general of the diocese of San Vicente before being named auxiliary bishop by Pope John Paul II on January 19, 2002.