Joan Enric Vives i Sicília

Birthday July 24, 1949

Birth Sign Leo

Birthplace Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Age 74 years old

Nationality Spain

#27759 Most Popular

1949

Joan-Enric Vives i Sicília (born 24 July 1949) is a Spanish cleric, who has served as Bishop of Urgell since 2003, and is therefore the Co-Prince of Andorra.

This makes him a joint-head-of-state (alongside the President of France) and one of the two Catholic religious figures in the world who also leads a country, the other such prelate being the Pope himself (who leads Vatican City).

He holds the rank of archbishop as a personal distinction, his diocese being a suffragan diocese.

Vives i Sicília was born in 1949 in Barcelona as the third son of Francesc Vives i Pons and of Cornèlia Sicília Ibáñez, who were small retailers.

1965

He entered the seminary in 1965 and studied humanities, philosophy and theology.

1974

In 1974, Vives was ordained a priest in his native parish Santa Maria del Taulat de Barcelona.

1993

He was later nominated as auxiliary bishop of Barcelona (and titular bishop of Nona) in 1993, and consecrated to the episcopacy and automatically became a member of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

2001

Pope John Paul II nominated him as coadjutor bishop of Urgell in 2001.

2003

After two years, on the retirement of his predecessor Joan Martí Alanis in 2003, he succeeded him as Bishop of Urgell on 12 May 2003, and hence therefore as co-prince of Andorra in the Principality of Andorra located in the heights of the Pyrenees Mountains.

On 10 July 2003, he carried out the Constitutional Oath as the new Co-Prince of Andorra at "Casa de la Vall", Andorra la Vella.

2010

Vives i Sicília was later elevated to archbishop as a personal title by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010.