This move supposes that this ecclesial territory has matured, an area situated at the mouth of the Amazon River and adjacent to the archdiocese of Belém do Pará. The new diocese of Cametá was made into a prelature in 1952 and was entrusted to the Congregation of the Mission (Pauline Fathers). The first two prelates belonged to this Institute. Mons. Cizaurre is the third, and now the first bishop of the new diocese. The solemn elevation of the prelature to a diocese will be held on May 5, Sunday, before the presence of the Papal Nuncio to Brazil.
The area has an extension of 48,000 sq. km. and a population of 400,000 inhabitants. There are 600 ecclesial communities, 17 diocesan priests, 7 religious priests, four permanent deacons and some 40 religious congregations. Mons. Jesús María Cizaurre Berdonces was born 61 years ago in Valtierra (Navarra, Spain). He did his studies in San Sebastián (Basque region) and Granada (Andalucía). He professed his vows as Augustinian Recollect in 1972 and has been assigned in Brazil since 1977. He dedicated most of his life to formation and pastoral care in the Amazon region as well as in the south of Brazil.
Brazilian Bishops
He was named prelate of Cametá on the 23rd of February 2000. Mons. Cizaurre was ordained bishop on the 7th of May that same year. He was the president of the Regional Conference North 2 of Brazil since the year 2007. This covers the ecclesiastical province of Belém do Pará. And on April 25, 2012 he was named by the Holy See as apostolic administrator of the neighboring diocese of Marabá, an assignment that he complied with until last December 21.
He is one of the five bishops that the Order has in Brazil. The others are: Mons. Francisco Javier Hernández Arnedo, of Tianguá (Ceará); Mons. José Luis Azcona Hermoso, prelate of Marajó (Pará); Mons. Joaquín Pertíñez Fernández, of Río Branco (Acre) and Mons. Jesús Moraza Ruiz de Azúa, prelate of Lábrea (Amazonas).