USCCB names new executive director for Bishops’ Secretariat for the Church in Latin America

On Monday, Father Carlos Quintana Puente, a Puerto Rican-ordained priest with vast financial experience was named the new Executive Director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

Father Quintana, who was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of San Juan in 1996, is a 1983 graduate of the University of Notre Dame who spent a number of years working for various Wall Street investment firms prior to becoming a priest.

Monsignor William P. Fay, USCCB General Secretary, who made the announcement, said that, “Father Quintana is particularly well suited for this work, given his experience of the Church in both the United States and Latin America.”

“I believe”, he continued, that “his presence here will mark a new beginning for the Secretariat as he travels through the United States giving witness to the reality of the Church in Latin America, and if that results in greater awareness and support it will yield great benefit to the dioceses and parishes throughout Latin America.”

“We have asked the Archdiocese of San Juan”, he said, “to make a great sacrifice in providing Father Quintana for this work, and we are deeply grateful. Through this sharing of his gifts with the Church in the north, may the life of the Church in the south be ever more blessed.”

Father Quintana is noted for his work managing the investment portfolio of the San Juan Archdiocese and overseeing the first island wide collection there.

In 1999, he became general treasurer of CELAM, the regional council which represents 22 national bishops’ conferences across Latin America and the Caribbean--an organization which has a long-standing relationship with the USCCB.

In his role as the new Secretariat, Father Quintana will essentially be a liaison between the Church in the U.S. and the Church in Central and South America and the Caribbean. He will also organize initiatives to raise consciousness in the U.S. of the plight of churches in those areas.

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