Álvaro del Portillo

Álvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano (11 March 1914 – 23 March 1994) was a Spanish Catholic bishop and engineer who served as the prelate of Opus Dei between 1982 and 1994.

Church leaders Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Carlo Caffarra have praised Portillo as a faithful servant of God. John Paul II referred to him as a "good and faithful servant" while Caffarra dubbed him a "disciple of Christ".

His cause of sainthood commenced on 21 January 2004 after being titled as a Servant of God. The confirmation of his heroic virtue on 28 June 2012 allowed for Pope Benedict XVI to name him as Venerable. He was beatified on 27 September 2014 in Madrid in a Mass that Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over on the behalf of Pope Francis.

Life

Alvaro del Portillo was born in Madrid on 11 March 1914. He was the third of eight children to the devout Ramón del Portillo Pardo and Clementina Diez de Solano Portillo; the couple had married on 11 January 1908. He was baptized on 17 March in the parish of Saint Joseph. He received his Confirmation on 28 December 1916 from the Bishop of Siguenza Eustaquio Nieto y Martín and went on to receive his First Communion on 12 May 1921. He studied civil engineering and after obtaining his doctorate at the University of Madrid taught at its School of Engineering. He briefly worked with the Bureau of Highways and Bridges in the provinces crossed by the rivers Júcar, Duero and Ebro.

In 1935, he joined Opus Dei and was subsequently ordained to the priesthood on June 25, 1944 by Bishop Leopoldo Eijo y Garay of Madrid as one of the first three men ordained for Opus Dei He continued his studies to obtain a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters in history in 1944 from Central University of Madrid, with a dissertation entitled Discoveries and Exploration on the California Coast. In 1948 he earned a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum

He then dedicated himself exclusively to the ministry and government of Opus Dei as its Secretary General. During the pontificate of Pope Pius XII (1939–1958), he worked in several Dicasteries of the Holy See. Prior to his ordination, he met with that pontiff in a private audience on 4 June 1943 and met with Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI) on the following 17 June.

In 1963, he was named by Pope John XXIII as a consultant on the Pontifical Commission for the revision of the Code of Canon Law. Pope Paul VI named him consultant on several post-Conciliar commissions. In 1975, he was chosen president general of Opus Dei and successor of Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and in 1982, the Holy See appointed him as the first Prelate of Opus Dei. In 1991, he was consecrated a bishop by Pope John Paul II, with Archbishops Giovanni Battista Re and Justin Francis Rigali serving as co-consecrators. That same year, he attended World Youth Day in Częstochowa.

He has written extensively about pastoral and ecclesiological matters that examine among others, the role of the lay faithful in the Roman Catholic Church, the human side of priestly formation, the dynamics and functionality of pastoral structures. As Prelate, he also served as Grand Chancellor of the University of Piura in Peru.

Shortly after his 80th birthday, he returned to Rome on a pilgrimage from the Holy Land. He died shortly thereafter. He had celebrated his last Mass at the Church of the Cenacle. Del Portillo was beatified on September 27, 2014 in his birth city of Madrid by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. May 12 was appointed as his feast day. The former Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato, described his holiness as part of the transformation of the world.

Works Descubrimientos y exploraciones en las costas de California, 1532-1650 ("Discoveries and explorations off the coast of California, 1532-1650") (1944, doctoral thesis) Faithful and Laity in the Church (1969) On the Priesthood (1970) Dinamicità e funzionalità delle strutture pastorali ("Dynamism and functionality of pastoral structures") ¿Un nuevo Derecho Canónico? ("A new canon law?") Morale e Diritto ("Morality and law") Immersed in God: Blessed Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei as Seen by His Successor, Bishop Álvaro Del Portillo—by Álvaro Del Portillo and Cesare Cavalleri Journey with Jesus through the Liturgical Year Orar: Como sal y como luz ("Praying: like salt and like light")

Excerpts from his works "Authentic joy is based on this foundation: that we want to live for God and want to serve others because of God. Let us tell the Lord that we want nothing more than to serve him with joy. If we behave in this way we shall find that our inner peace, our joy, our good humour will attract many souls to God. Give witness to Christian joy. Show to those around you that this is our great secret. We are happy because we are children of God, because we deal with him, because we struggle to become better for him. And when we fail, we go right away to the Sacrament of joy where we recover our sense of fraternity with all men and women." Homily, 12 Apr 1984; quoted by Francis Fernandez Carvajal in In Conversation With God, vol.5, p. 155