14ymedio, Havana, 29 December 2015 — He was working as an electrical engineer specializing in telecommunications when, in 1980, he decided to assume the habit. Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez was born in 1945, and as a deacon did his first outstanding work alongside Father Jose Conrado Rodriguez in the preparations for the Cuban Ecclesial Reflection, which concluded in 1985, when he was ordained as a priest. Eleven years later he would be consecrated as a bishop.
The current Archbishop Primate of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba and President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba is also the custodian of the image of the Virgin of Charity venerated in the Shrine of Cobre. During this year, and with the presence of Pope Francis in Cuba, he announced the jubilee year that will end in September 2016, to mark the centenary of the declaration of the Virgin as patroness of Cuba.
Those skilled in ecclesiastical intricacies consider him a likely successor to Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino as Archbishop of Havana, which could happen around next Easter.
