| Type: | Metropolitan Archibishop |
| Honorific Prefix: | His Grace, The Most Reverend, Monsignor |
| Joan Planellas Barnosell | |
| Metropolitan Archbishop of Tarragona | |
| Church: | Roman Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese: | Tarragona |
| Province: | Tarragona |
| Ordination: | 28 March 1982 |
| Consecration: | 4 May 2019 |
| Birth Name: | Joan Planellas Barnosell |
| Birth Date: | 1955 11, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Girona, Spain |
| Religion: | Roman Catholicism |
| Alma Mater: | Pontifical Gregorian University |
| Coat Of Arms: | Escudo de Joan Planellas.svg |
| Motto: | Spiritus uivenem facit Eclesiampor |
Joan Planellas i Barnosell (born 7 November 1955) is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been serving as the archbishop of Tarragona since his installation on 4 May 2019. He previously served as a canon on the Girona Cathedral. He was also given the title, that is a group of priests that were designated by the Pope to forgive serious sins normally only reserved to the Holy See. Barnosell became a priest in 28 March 1982.
Planellas was born in Girona on 7 November 1955. He grew up in Colomers. He studied at the Diocesan Seminary of Girona from 1968 to 1979 and was ordained a priest on 28 March 1982. He studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University from 1979 to 1981 and in 2003–2004, earning a doctorate in dogmatic theology.[1]
He was professor of theology at the Seminary of Girona, director of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences (1988-1998), rector of the Seminary of Girona (1996-2002), director of the Revista Catalana de Teologia (Catalan Journal of Theology), vice dean of the (2010-2015) and its Dean from 2015 to 2019. He also served as parish priest and administrator of various parishes from 1990 to 2019, when he was rector of Jafre, Garrigoles, Colomers, Foixà, and Rupià, and parochial administrator of the Tallada d'Empordà.[2] In 2008, he was appointed Canon of the Cathedral Chapter in Girona and since 2013 has been a member of its Presbyterian Council.[1]
On 4 May 2019, Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Tarragona.[3] His episcopal consecration and installation are scheduled for 8 June.[4] His appointment was unusual in that a priest is rarely made archbishop without having been a bishop, though Francis has made a similar appointment for Lima, Peru, in January 2019.[5]
Proponents of Catalan culture and independence welcomed the appointment because a non-Catalan had been rumored a likely appointment and half the bishops in Catalonia are not native to the region.[6] One columnist saw the appointment as a shift from a "stigmatized" conservative view of the Girona clergy as political and separatist and credited Archbishop Juan José Omella of Barcelona with this “brave commitment to the Catalan church".
Planellas' parish church in Jafre flew the banner of Catalan independence from its tower in 2012 to mark the National Day of Catalonia, the Feast of San Martí, to whom the church is dedicated. A local resident, Dolors Caminal, objected that this "promotes a lack of solidarity and hatred toward the rest of our Spanish brothers". She rejected the local bishop's offer to discuss the matter privately. Planellas told a journalist that "the people asked for it" and it had become an annual tradition. He said "Jafre is a town that lives in peace. They complain because they like controversy.... I repeat that the flag is set by the people, not by the parish. It is a thing of the people." As for those who are unhappy: "Let them put the Spanish flag on their house, if they want."[7] This dispute served as the basis for some 2019 headlines that called Panellas a "radical separatist" (separatista radical).[8] [9] Church sources described Planellas as "firmly Catalan but not radical".[10]
Selected major works:[11]