| Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succession: | Co-Prince of Andorra | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign: | TBD | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reg-Type: | Co-Prince | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor: | Joan Enric Vives i Sicília | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Module: |
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Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat (born 19 March 1977) is a Spanish cleric who has served as the coadjutor bishop of Urgell since 2024. He was appointed by the pope as the successor to Joan Enric Vives i Sicília as Bishop of Urgell and therefore Co-Prince of Andorra.
Serrano was born on 19 March 1977 in Tivissa, Spain.[1] He is a fluent speaker of Spanish, Catalan, French, English, Italian and Portuguese.[2] He entered a minor seminary in Tortosa at the age of 14 and then entered major seminary in 1995.[3] [4] He studied at the Facultad de Teología de Cataluña (Faculty of Theology of Catalonia) in Barcelona and received a Bachelor of Theology degree in 2001.[4] Serrano was ordained as a deacon in 2001 and served in that position in the parish of the Assumption of Mary in Amposta for a year.[2] On 21 April 2002, he was ordained as a priest by Bishop Xavier Salinas, in the Tortosa Cathedral.[2]
Serrano served as the priest of three rural parishes, Palma d'Ebre, la Bisbal de Falset and Margalef de Montsant, from 2002 to 2005, before entering the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2005.[2] He studied dogmatic theology from 2005 to 2007 and earned a licentiate in 2007.[2] He returned to Tortosa after he received his licentiate and was appointed the priest of the parishes of Sant Andreu and Sant Pere, both in the municipality Vandellòs i l'Hospitalet de l'Infant.[2] From 2008 to 2009, he also served as moderator of the Pastoral Unit of Costa Nord, and he also served as a lecturer for the Tortosa Major Seminary from 2007 through 2009.[1]
Serrano also studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome from 2009 to 2012, at the Pontifical Lateran University – where he received a licentiate in canon law in 2011, and continued to study at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he received a doctorate in dogmatic theology in 2012, with the work Palabra Sacramento y Carisma: La eclesiologia de E. Corecco.[1] [5]
Serrano was named the secretary of the Mozambique Nunciature in 2012, serving through 2016.[1] He then served as secretary with the Nunciature in Nicaragua from 2016 to 2017, and with the Nunciature in Brazil from 2017 to 2019.[1] In 2019, he became a Counselor of the Nunciature in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State.[1] On 12 July 2024, Serrano was appointed by the pope as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Urgell, becoming, at age 47, the youngest Bishop in Catalonia.[3] Upon the resignation of Joan Enric Vives i Sicília, Serrano will become the Bishop of Urgell and therefore Co-Prince of Andorra.[6]