Cristián Enrique Contreras Molina

Cristián Enrique Contreras Molina (born 8 November 1946) is a native of Chile and a former bishop of the Catholic Church. He was Bishop of San Felipe from 2002 to 2018.

Biography He was born on 8 November 1946 in Santiago de Chile. He entered the novitiate of the Mercedarians in 1961 and studied philosophy and theology with them and in the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies in 1974. He took his perpetual vows on 21 September 1973 and he was ordained a priest on 12 October 1974 by Archbishop Sotero Sanz Villalba, Apostolic Nuncio to Chile. and he was installed there on 25 August.

On 18 May 2018, Contreras submitted his resignation to Pope Francis, as did all the Chilean bishops at the conclusion of a three-day meeting in Rome. In early September prosecutors launched an investigation based on an accusation of a sexual crime made against Contreras. Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 21 September 2018, replacing him with a priest as Apostolic Administrator, Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano Piquer.