Bishop Nicolás Rey Redondo And His Project

BISHOP NICOLÁS REY REDONDO AND HIS PROJECT FOR THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE DIOCESE OF NIVARIA IN THE LAST QUARTER OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY It was the end of the nineteenth century and despite the proposals begun in 1854, completed and sent to the Ministry of Grace and Justice in 1867 by the Bishop of the Canary Islands, Apostolic Administrator of Tenerife, Fray Joaquín Lluch y Garriga, the parish arrangement of the diocese of Tenerife had not yet been carried out. This was the reason why, at the beginning of the year 1895, on January 29, from the Ministry of Grace and Justice, Antonio Maura, informed the bishop of the same, Nicolás Rey Redondo, about the convenience of not delaying it any longer, which is why the project of the settlement of the diocese that had been sent to the ministry for several years and that was detained in the diocese was officially returned to him. secretariat, all with the aim of being able to comply once and for all with the clause of the Concordat of 1851 that contemplated it.1 From the ministry, and based on the fact that the parish arrangement sent in 1867 by Bishop Lluch y Garriga was incomplete, because the prescriptions of the royal decree of January 3, 1854 were not taken into account exactly, nor those of the royal decree of February 17, 1867, the bishop was asked to complete or draw up a new one as soon as possible, taking into account the circumstances of the public treasury, so that a better distribution of parishes would have a favorable effect on the spiritual assistance of the faithful. without increasing expenses. One of the priorities of Bishop Rey Redondo after his inauguration of the diocese of Nivaria was to make the pastoral visit in order to know personally the needs of the diocesans, a decision that was accentuated after receiving in the first days of February 1895, the communication of the Minister of Grace and Justice informing him of the return of the file. The pastoral visit began on April 27, 1895 and ended in February 1896, a period of time in which the bishop personally became acquainted with the diocese and saw the difficulties and needs of its inhabitants. Apart from the realization of this and in order to expedite the parish arrangement as much as possible, "because it is a matter of great gravity and transcendence", before starting it and absenting himself from La Laguna, he appointed a board of ecclesiastics "of recognized competence, both for their knowledge and for the knowledge they have of the country". Four days before the beginning of the pastoral visit, on April 24, Bishop Rey Redondo met in his episcopal chamber with several ecclesiastics who had previously been summoned, after informing them of the royal order of January 29 and based on the importance of it, as well as on the limitation posed by the ignorance he still had of the diocese due to the short time he had been at the helm In order to be able to carry out in the best possible way the work that had been entrusted to him of reforming the parish arrangement that had been formed and decided by Bishop Lluch y Garriga in 1867, without the help of the chapter and to collaborate with it, he appointed a Board of ecclesiastics, made up of four members of the cathedral and two parish priests. namely: the provisor and doctoral canon of the same, Silverio Alonso del Castillo Pérez, the dean, Enrique Medina Santana, the chanter, Ramón Martínez Ocampo, and the canon José Francisco Padilla, as well as the parish priests of the mother churches of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de La Laguna and Santa Cruz, Claudio Marrero Delgado and Epifanio Díaz Saavedra respectively. This choice was based on the knowledge that each of the members of the Board had of the diocese, both because of the positions they had held in it, and because of the fact that they were natives of the Islands, circumstances that, in the opinion of the bishop, were ideal for the work that was intended to study the file of the respective archpriests and propose the reforms that they considered most opportune. To carry it out, they had to rely on the statements of the archpriests of the various ecclesiastical districts, as well as the cathedral chapter and fiscal of the diocese, as contemplated in the Concordat. Considering that it would be much more effective if the work were carried out separately, given the greater knowledge that each of the members of the Board had of the old archpriesthoods, Bishop Rey Redondo entrusted the doctorate with the one on the island of La Palma; from those of La Laguna, La Orotava and El Hierro, to the dean; the chantre of those of Icod and Daute, while that of the island of La Gomera was held responsible to Canon José Francisco Padilla, initially awarding that of Güímar to the parish priest of La Concepción de La Laguna. Finally, the one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife was commissioned by the archpriest himself and at the same time parish priest of the mother church of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción in that city. Months later, when the bishop was returning from the pastoral visit made to the islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, with which one of the ecclesiastics of the Junta had died, the parish priest of the Conception of La Laguna, by decree of August 3, he appointed the archpriest of the cathedral to replace him. Gabriel José Serrano Checa, based fundamentally on the great knowledge he had of the diocese of Nivaria as secretary of the chamber and visitation that had been of the previous bishop, Ramón Torrijos y Gómez From the study of all the archpriesthoods resulted a series of needs that constituted the basis of the proposal sent by Nicolás Rey Redondo to the Ministry of Grace and Justice.