Homero Marín Arboleda

Homero Marín Arboleda, C.M. (born 17 November 1959) is a Colombian Roman Catholic prelate who has served as Apostolic Vicar of Tierradentro since his appointment by Pope Leo XIV on 12 May 2026. He was ordained a bishop on 15 August 2026 in Belalcázar, Cauca.

Early life and formation Marín Arboleda was born in Circasia, Quindío, Colombia, on 17 November 1959. He entered the Congregation of the Mission in Medellín and spent his initial formation there between 1980 and 1983. He studied philosophy at the Major Seminary La Milagrosa in Medellín and theology at the Major Seminary Villa Paúl in Funza, Cundinamarca. He made his first religious profession on 2 February 1982 and his perpetual profession on 24 November 1984. He was ordained a priest for the Congregation of the Mission on 21 November 1987.

He subsequently obtained a licentiate in missiology from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome in 1996.

In 2001, he began a long period of missionary service in Papua New Guinea. He was vice-rector of the seminary at Bomana from 2001 to 2007 and parish priest of Holy Name of Jesus in Bomana from 2007 to 2013. From 2009 to 2011 he was superior of the Lazarist Mission in Papua New Guinea. From 2013 he served as parish priest of Saint Anthony of Padua on Kiriwina Island, and from 2019 also served the Blessed John Mazzucconi parish on Woodlark Island.

Episcopacy On 12 May 2026, Pope Leo XIV appointed Marín Arboleda Apostolic Vicar of Tierradentro, succeeding Óscar Augusto Múnera Ochoa. At the time of his appointment he was serving as parish priest on Kiriwina and Woodlark islands in Papua New Guinea.

His return to Tierradentro marked a continuation of a longstanding connection with the region. His pastoral service there began in 1987, when he was assigned to Vitoncó, and included work in Willa and in the Indigenous Páez seminaries. The Episcopal Conference of Colombia described his familiarity with the region's Indigenous and rural communities as an important part of his pastoral experience.