Joaquín María López de Andújar y Cánovas del Castillo

Joaquín María López de Andújar y Cánovas del Castillo (born 13 September 1942) is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church. He previously served as the bishop of Getafe from 2004 to 2017.

Biography Joaquín María was born on Madrid on 13 September 1942, the son of Joaquín López de Andújar y Gil de Arana, and his wife Isabel Cánovas del Castillo y Teresa. He is the great-grand-nephew of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, who served six terms as Prime Minister of Spain. He graduated in Law at the Complutense University of Madrid, and later studied at the Seminario Conciliar de Madrid and was ordained as a priest on 30 November 1968.

His first post as a priest was at the Parish of the Ascension of Our Lady, in Colmenar Viejo. In 1969, he moved to the Parish of Saint Mary, as parish vicar. In 1976, he became the parish priest of the Parish of Our Lady of Africa in Madrid; and two years later he was chosen to be the Archpriest of San Roque. In 1984 he became the Episcopal Vicar of the Fifth Vicarage of Madrid, where he stayed until the Archdiocese of Madrid-Alcalá was split in 1991, when he became the General Vicar of the Diocese of Getafe. Fr. Joaquín María focused on increasing youth participation during his time as head of his diocese, including an annual tradition of providing buses for children from his diocese to go on pilgrimage to Guadalupe, and increasing his diocese's social media presence, to make religion feel more contemporary and accessible to young people.