Octavi Vilà, bishop of Girona, will replace Omella as archbishop of Barcelona

The Holy See will make official today at noon the successor of the Archbishop of Barcelona, ​​Cardinal Juan José Omella. The one who will take the witness is the current bishop of Girona, Octavi Vilà, since a press conference was called today in both dioceses at the same time. The usual thing in these cases, beyond the appointment that appears in the Vatican documents at 12:00 p.m., is that the media is summoned at the same time in the diocese of the elected bishop and in the diocese of the outgoing prelate.

For weeks there had been rumors in the ecclesiastical gossip about who could be Omella's successor, since since last April he was out of time. Upon turning 80, the five-year extension granted to bishops expires, and they are obliged to present their resignation to the Pope when they turn 75.

However, with the visit of Leo XVI to Barcelona last June, it was already assumed that the succession issue would be delayed until at least the summer and in recent weeks speculation and rumors had exploded, since since September it was said that the name of the successor had already been signed and that the announcement was imminent.

In the end, the appointment comes at the gates of the Spanish electoral campaign, and coincides with a day of general strike, which shows that the Vatican manages its own times and that its agenda does not always coincide with that of other institutions in the public sphere. Furthermore, the announcement of the new bishop comes during an apostolic trip of the Pope to Latin America.

Vilà is not a name foreign to the succession, since it had been indicated in specialized media that he could be the chosen one, although no one, when faced with ecclesiastical matters, dares to take anything for granted as long as it does not bear the letterhead of Rome.

Along the way there are other names that had been mentioned in the discussions, such as that of the archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, Florencio Roselló, a Mercedarian close to Omella and with a past in the Catalan capital; that of the archbishop of Seville, José Ángel Saiz Meneses, who was auxiliary in Barcelona and titular in Terrassa; and others that had been mentioned, such as that of the bishop of Tortosa, Sergi Gordo, who was already auxiliary in Barcelona with Omella; or that of some Catalan in Rome, like Jordi Bertomeu. This time an unusual profile had entered the pools, such as that of the bishop of Ajaccio, François-Xavier Bustillo, a Navarrese Franciscan who belongs to the French Episcopal Conference and who is already a cardinal, like Omella.

Be that as it may, Vilà, born in Tarragona in 1961, is a peculiar profile in the episcopate, since he is a Cistercian monk and took the habit at the age of 44. Nine years later he was ordained a priest, in 2015, at the age of 53, and before becoming bishop he was abbot of Santa Maria de Poblet, a monastery that requires diplomacy with the administrations, since it is owned by the State. However, Vilà is identified with the Catalan current within the Church and was ordained bishop in April 2024, in a ceremony presided over by the metropolitan archbishop of Tarragona, Joan Planellas.

The appointment of Vilà, who has a degree in Geography and History (1984) and a diploma in Library Science and Documentation (1987) from the University of Barcelona, ​​has come after he will celebrate the Girona festival of Sant Narcís at the end of October.

A few months ago, the one from Girona was one of the bishops who came out in favor of the blessing of the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Família, during Robert Prevost's visit, being done in Catalan. A few days before, the official missal of the Pontiff's celebrations had been published and although some fragments were included in Catalan, the blessing of the tower appeared in Spanish.