Vicente Enrique y Tarancón
Real Academia Española | |
|---|---|
| In office 24 May 1970 – 28 November 1994 | |
| Preceded by | Ramón Menéndez Pidal |
| Succeeded by | Eliseo Álvarez-Arenas Pacheco |
| Styles of Vicente Enrique y Tarancón | ||
|---|---|---|
Reference style His Eminence | | |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence | |
| Informal style | Cardinal | |
| See | Madrid (emeritus) | |
Vicente Enrique y Tarancón (14 May 1907 – 28 November 1994), known in his country as Cardenal Tarancón or Tarancón, was a Spanish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Madrid from 1971 to 1983, and as president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference from 1971 to 1981, during the difficult years of the Spanish transition to democracy. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969.
Biography
Vicente Enrique y Tarancón was born in
Diocese of Tortosa until 1933. He worked with Catholic Action in the Diocese of Madrid
from 1933 to 1938, when he resumed his pastoral ministry in Tortosa.
On 25 November 1945, Enrique y Tarancón was appointed Bishop of
Primate of Spain
.
Apostolic Administrator of Madrid-Alcalá from 30 May 1971, after the death of archbishop Morcillo, until being appointed Archbishop of Madrid
on 3 December. He also acted as President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference the same year (also to finish the three-years term of his predecessor Morcillo) before being formally elected in February 1972.
In this position, he had to confront the difficult last years of the
Los Jerónimos: there the Cardinal asked him to be "the king of all Spaniards, and not only of part of them". During the first years of the Spanish Transition
, Tarancón proved to be dialogant with all social and political forces.
Tarancón was one of the
October 1978, which selected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II
respectively. He resigned as Madrid's archbishop on 12 April 1983.
The Cardinal died in Valencia, at age 87. He is buried in the Collegiate of San Isidro, in Madrid.
