Fernando Sebastián Aguilar

Fernando Sebastián Aguilar CMF (; 14 December 1929 – 24 January 2019) was a Spanish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the Archbishop Emeritus of Pamplona y Tudela. Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of cardinal in a consistory on February 22, 2014.

Biography and Education Sebastián Aguilar was born in Calatayud, Province of Zaragoza on 14 December 1929.

He entered the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Claretians) and made his religious profession on 8 September 1946. After completing his studies in philosophy and theology in the seminaries of the congregation, he was ordained a priest on 28 June 1953. Sebastián Aguilar obtained a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1957 with a dissertation entitled “Maternitatis divinae diversa ratio apud Didacum Alvarez et Franciscum Suarez”.

He became a member of the Sociedad Mariológica Española in 1959 and served as director of the Revista Ephemerides Mariologicae in 1966. In the same year, he founded the Iglesia Viva journal, which he directed until 1971. Sebastián Aguilar also taught dogmatic theology in his religious congregation in Valls and Salamanca. He then served as professor, from 1967, and subsequently rector, from 1971 to 1979, of the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

Episcopate

Sebastián Aguilar was the archbishop emeritus of Pamplona y Tudela, having served as archbishop from 26 March 1993 until 31 July 2007, when he was succeeded by Francisco Pérez González. Prior to this, he was Bishop of León from 22 August 1979 until 28 July 1983, when he stepped down. He became archbishop co-adjutor of Granada on 8 April 1988, but did not succeed to that see because he was appointed to the aforementioned Pamplona y Tudela.

Cardinal

Pope Francis announced on 12 January 2014 that on 22 February, Archbishop Sebastián Aguilar, along with 18 other individuals, would be inducted into the College of Cardinals.

Death Sebastián Aguilar died on 24 January 2019 in Málaga at the age of 89 after having suffered a severe stroke just a few days prior on 20 January.