Pope Leo XIV on June 24 appointed Puerto Rican priest Father Geraldo Ramírez Torres as the new bishop of the Diocese of Ponce in the Caribbean territory.
The pontiff also accepted the resignation of Bishop Rubén Antonio González Medina, C.M.F., who has led the diocese since 2015.
According to a Vatican press release, Ramírez was born in Villalba, Puerto Rico, on Nov. 17, 1967. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ponce on Nov. 19, 1991.
His academic training included a bachelor’s degree in theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.
He served as a parish priest and chaplain for several parishes in the Ponce diocese before his appointment as bishop. He served as vicar general of the diocese since 2021 and as parish priest of the dioceseʼs Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe since 2004.
Known as “Father Jerry,” Ramírez told El Visitante de Puerto Rico in 2016 that he owed his priestly vocation to “a devout family and the example and dedication of the Marianist priests and brothers.”
“I accepted the call aware that I wasnʼt the best clay, but with the conviction that he is indeed the greatest and best potter,” the priest told the Catholic newspaper on the occasion of his 25th anniversary of priestly ordination.
The diocese of Ponce is one of six Roman Catholic dioceses in Puerto Rico and is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico, all of which are a part of the Catholic Church in the United States.
