Formation

Mario Alberto Palma was born in Panama on the 13th of October, 1948. He completed his primary and secondary studies in the Colegio San Agustín of Panama City.

When he finished his bachelor studies, he requested entry into the Order of Augustinian Recollects in the Province of Our Lady of Consolation. He made his novitiate, however, in the house of formation of the Province of St. Augustine in Kansas City, Kansas. He took his first vows on the 27th of August, 1968. He continued his formation in this monastery until his profession of solemn vows in 1971. In 1972, he began his theological studies in the Seminary of St. Thomas of Villanova, Torrente, Valencia, Spain. He received the diaconate in Pamplona and ordination to the priesthood in Panama on the 29th of June, 1975.

He had completed his philosophy requirements in Rockurst College, Kansas City, Missouri, from which institution he received a bachelor of arts degree. In the Faculty St. Vincent Ferrer, Valencia, he obtained the bachelor degree in theology in 1975. This same year, after his ordination to the priesthood, he continued his studies of Sacred Scripture in the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome achieving a licentiate degree in Sacred Scripture in 1978. After a few years as member of the formation team in Torrente, he returned to Rome in order to work for his doctorate at the same Pontifical Biblical Institute where he obtained the title of Doctor of Sacred Scripture in 1985.

Assignments

Upon completion of his studies, he was transferred by his superiors to Guatemala where he began to work principally in as a teacher of Theology and Sacred Scripture at the National Major Seminary of the Assumption, and as a member of the faculty of the University Rafael Landivar and the Salesian Institute of Theology. He held these ministries between 1986 and 1991. In 1991, he became prior of the Seminary of St. Augustine of Guatemala and provincial delegate for Guatemala.

In 1994, he received permission from his superiors to assume the position of dean of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Rafael Landivar for six years, that is, until the year 2000. In 1998, he also began his service as Adjunct Secretary to the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala. He performed this service until 2002. At this time, he was named pastor of the parish of St. Maria Goretti in Guatemala City. On the 29th of October of 2004, while attending the General Chapter of the Order as a delegate, he was informed of his appointment as Bishop of Quiché, Guatemala, by His Holiness Pope John Paul II. He was ordained bishop in Santa Cruz de Quiché on the 22 of January of 2005.

Diocese

The Diocese of Quiché is coextensive with the Department of the same name in Guatemala. It is located in the western part of the country and has an area of 8378 square kilometers and a population, as of 2008, of 861, 110 inhabitants.

The territory takes the shape of a rectangle whose northern limits touch the Mexican state of Chiapas. The southern limits border on the western plateau of Guatemala. The population of the diocese consists of diverse indigenous peoples of mayan origin which may be identified by the various languages they employ.

Quiché was the scene of the most cruel and inhuman episodes of Guatemala’s civil war, particularly, in the early part of the decade of 1980. Thousands of individuals were tortured or simply disappeared; in dozens of villages there were massacres . The poorest segment of the population cultivate corn and beans for sustenance and work as well with handicraft techniques. A good number dedicate themselves to commerce and the small enterprises of repair and maintenance. In recent years, the state educational program has begun to arrive in the whole region but the public education is of a very poor quality. Nevertheless, the state university and two private universities have extensions for career training in Santa Cruz but limited to those few privileged who can afford higher education.

The Diocese has 26 parishes, 2 parishes in process. There are 26 priests of the diocese, 10 priest religious and 85 sisters and 5 religious brothers. There are seven Catholic schools which, thanks to financial assistance from the outside, can educate students of limited means. At present, the diocese has 7 seminarians. 54 % of the population claims to be Catholic, 33 % non-- Catholic Christian, and 10 % claim no religion. The Diocese of Quiché was established in 1967 and the current bishop is the fifth since the foundation.

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Province
Our Lady of Consolation

Year of episcopal ordination
2005

Motto
Ut Ecclesia aedificationem accipiat