Ariel Suárez Jáuregui, Adjunct Secretary, Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops

Ariel Suárez was born in Cuba to a Catholic father and a Baptist mother. He entered the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary in Havana to be a Catholic priest, later studying at the Havana Seminary and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he finished his bachelor’s degree in theology. He was ordained a priest on August 7, 1999, in the Cathedral of Havana. For 24 years he has worked in various parishes, seminaries, and communities. He has been an advisor to the Diocesan Youth Ministry and to Palabra Nueva, the magazine of the Archdiocese of Havana. Suárez has presented at conferences in Cuba and Germany and has directed workshops and retreats for religious congregations in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Mexico City, Mexico. In 2015 he was named rector of the Minor Basilica and Diocesan Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity, Patroness of Cuba. In 2019 the Catholic Bishops of Cuba entrusted him with representing the Catholic Church in ecumenical relations. He has been the assistant secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba since 2021.