| Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reg-Type: | Co-Prince | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat (Spanish: José-Luis Serrano Pentinat, born 19 March 1977) is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as coadjutor bishop of Urgell since 2024, with the right to succeed Joan Enric Vives i Sicília as Bishop of Urgell and Co-Prince of Andorra. He became Spain's youngest bishop. Serrano worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 2012 to 2024.
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 the minor seminary in Tortosa at the age of 14 and then entered the major seminary in 1995.[3] He studied at the in Barcelona and received a Bachelor of Theology degree in 2001. 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. On 21 April 2002, he was ordained as a priest by Bishop Xavier Salinas i Vinyals in the Tortosa Cathedral.[2]
Serrano served as the priest of three rural parishes, la Palma d'Ebre, la Bisbal de Montsant and Margalef, from 2002 to 2005. He studied dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University from 2005 to 2007 and earned a licentiate in 2007. Returning to Tortosa, he was 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. He was a lecturer at the Tortosa Major Seminary from 2007 to 2009.[1]
Serrano 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 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] [4]
Serrano was secretary of the Mozambique Nunciature from 2012 to 2016. He then served as secretary of the Nunciature in Nicaragua from 2016 to 2017 the Nunciature in Brazil from 2017 to 2019. In 2019, he became a counselor of the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State[1] and by 2024 was personal secretary to Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute for the Secretary of State. On 12 July 2024, Pope Francis appointed Serrano coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Urgell,[5] making him, at age 47, the youngest bishop in Catalonia. Upon the resignation of Joan Enric Vives i Sicília, Serrano becomes the Bishop of Urgell and therefore Co-Prince of Andorra.[6] His appointment ended speculation in the local press that a diocese might be created for Andorra alone or that a change in the bishop's role as co-prince was contemplated.[6] He received his episcopal consecration on 21 September from Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra.[7]