Martinez Elected in Northern Mexico
Episcopal News Service. January 8, 1987 [87001]
MONTERREY, Mexico (DPS, Jan. 8) -- The Rev. German Martinez, vicar of the Church of Reconciliation here, was elected Bishop of Northern Mexico on the eleventh ballot at a special diocesan convention Dec. 6. He succeeds Bishop Leonardo Romero, who died last June following brain surgery. The other names on the ballot were those of the Rev. Sergio Carranza, executive secretary of Province IX, and the Rev. Benito Juarez, a priest in the diocese.
Martinez, 53, was born in Ziritzicuaro, State of Michoacan. After attending the local schools, he entered a Roman Catholic seminary in Montezuma, New Mexico. He was ordained deacon and priest in the Roman Catholic Church in 1958 and served in that Church until 1966.
In 1970, he was received into the Episcopal Church. Prior to that, he had spent a year studying and working with the Lutheran Church. Following his reception, he became priest-in-charge of the Church of St. John the Divine in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, a post he held until 1985, when he moved on to the Church of Reconciliation.
The new bishop married Maria Zapata in 1966, and the couple has three children.
Martinez's consecration has tentatively been scheduled for March 15, pending the consent of the standing committees.
The Diocese of Northern Mexico was established in 1973, when the Iglesia Episcopal Mexicana was divided into three dioceses; the other dioceses are Western Mexico and Central and Southern Mexico. The Diocese of Northern Mexico, whose see city is Monterrey, has 23 parishes and missions. It has a companion relationship with the Diocese of West Texas.