José Ornelas Carvalho


José Ornelas Carvalho, SCJ is an Portuguese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the third and current Bishop of Setúbal. Before, he had served as the Superior-General of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, from 2003 to 2015.
José Ornelas Carvalho was elected to a three-year term as President of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference in 2020.

Early life

José Ornelas Carvalho was born in 1954 in the parish of Porto da Cruz, in Machico, Madeira, the son of António Tomás Carvalho and Benvinda de Ornelas. He studied at the Diocesan Minor Seminary of Funchal from 1964 to 1967. Wishing to become a missionary, he joined the Missionary College of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Funchal, and then the studies at the Congregation's Missionary Institute in Coimbra.
On 29 September 1972 he made his temporary vows in Aveiro and, after two years of studies in Philosophy, he spent two years as a missionary in Mozambique, from 1974 to 1976. Back in Lisbon, he concluded his degree in Theology from the Catholic University of Portugal, in 1979.

Ordained ministry

Priesthood

He was ordained priest on 9 August 1981, in his hometown of Porto da Cruz, in a ceremony presided by Maurílio de Gouveia, then Titular Archbishop of Mitylene. In 1983, he started teaching at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Portugal; he interrupted his teaching activities to prepare his doctorate in Biblical Theology in Rome and Germany, which he concluded in 14 July 1997. He also taught at the Major Seminary of Our Lady of Fátima, in Alfragide.
José Ornelas Carvalho was elected Superior General of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart on 27 May 2003, after having served as the Provincial Superior of the Dehonian Portuguese Province. He was in the position until 6 June 2015.

Episcopate

He was appointed Bishop of Setúbal on 24 August 2015, by Pope Francis, succeeding Gilberto Canavarro dos Reis; he was ordained on 25 October 2015 by Cardinal-Patriarch Manuel Clemente, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Grace, in Setúbal.