Álvaro Julio Beyra Luarca

Álvaro Julio Beyra Luarca (born 27 May 1945) is a Cuban prelate of the Roman Catholic church. He has been serving as the bishop of Bayamo since his installation on 9 of July 2007.

As a young man, he discovered his religious vocation and entered the diocesan seminary to start his ecclesiastical education. After completing his ecclesiastical, philosophical and theological training, he was ordained priest on 14 July 1968 for his local diocese. On 25 August 2007, he received the episcopal consecration by the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, and co-consecrators Juan García Rodríguez and Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino.

Early life Álvaro Julio Beyra Luarca was born on May 27, 1945, in the city of Camagüey, Cuba. He was raised in a Catholic family, the son of pediatrician and professor Manuel Alemany and Yolanda Espinosa. He had four siblings. Beyra completed his primary and secondary education at a Marist Brothers school, where he was a member of the Jeunesse Étudiante Chrétienne.

He attended University of Las Villas to study hydraulic engineering. In 1972, he earned a degree in agronomic engineering from University of Camagüey. He was the vice-president of irrigation at a Cuban agricultural company.

Bishophood On 9 July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Luarca of the Diocese of Santísimo Salvador de Bayamo y Manzanillo, making him the second bishop ever of the diocese. He was consecrated on 25 August 2007 by Dionisio García Carnero, archbishop of Santiago de Cuba.

Luarca presides the National Commission of Youth Pastoral Care of Cuba. He had an acute decompensated heart failure in 2015 and was hospitalized due to it.