Msgr. Pio Gonçalo Alves de Sousa. PHOTO: Courtesy

Pio Gonçalo Alves de Sousa, graduate, doctor and former professor of the School of Theology at the University of Navarra and member of the committee advisor of two of its scientific journals, Scripta Theologica and yearbook of Church History.

Bishop Alves de Sousa was born in 1945 in Lanheses (Portugal). In 1968 he was ordained a priest in Braga and that same year he was appointed parochial vicar of Creixomil, in the Portuguese country.

In 1969 he began the licentiate degree of Theology at the University of Navarra, thanks to a grant from programs of study of the association of Friends, and obtained the degree scroll in 1971. In 1974, with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he obtained his doctorate with A Cum Laude in Patristic Theology with the thesis El sacerdocio ministerial en los libros 'De Sacerdotio' de San Juan Crisóstomo, which was published in its entirety by publishing house Eunsa.

Between 1972 and 1983 he was also professor at Schools of Theology, Pharmacy, Sciences, and Philosophy and Letters. He also served as chaplain of the Pharmacy School from 1974 to 1979.

Academic and ecclesiastical responsibilities

Upon his return to Braga (Portugal) in 1983, he was a professor at the Higher Institute of Theology (seminar Conciliar de Braga) and, with the incorporation of this organism to the School of Theology of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP) four years later, he became part of it.
In this center, of which he is Full Professor since 2003, he has held the positions of director attachment in Braga of the School of Theology (1991-1996), Vice President (1994-2000) and president of the Regional Center of Braga of the UCP (2007-2009).

Msgr. Alves de Sousa has combined his academic work with other responsibilities: assistant in Braga of the association of Portuguese Catholic Doctors (1983-1994), episcopal vicar of Faith in the Archdiocese of Braga (1985-1991), delegate of the Archdiocese of Braga for 'The Voice of Minho' of Radio Renascença (1985-1994), president of the Archdiocesan Liturgy Commission (1986-1991), director of the Archdiocesan Secretariat for Social Communication (1990-1991), and canon of Braga since 1987, where he was appointed dean in 2003.

He is currently director of the file and Library Services of the Holy See in Braga and director of the city's Treasury-Museum, where he has presided over the expansion and remodeling works and coordinated the permanent exhibition 'Roots of Eternity. Jesus Christ, one Church'.