Episcopal Press and News
Anselmo Carral Consecrated Bishop of Guatemala
Diocesan Press Service. January 26, 1973 [73018]
Hugh McCullum, editor of The Canadian Churchman, Toronto.
(NOTE: Coverage of the consecration of Bishop Carral for the DPS was provided by Hugh McCullum, editor of The Canadian Churchman, Toronto. His story appears below.)
GUATEMALA CITY -- More than 300 people crowded the patio of the diocesan centre here for the consecration of Anselmo Carral Solar as second bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Diocese of Guatemala.
Bishop Carral, a Cuban exile who had served in Panama as an Episcopal priest prior to his election last November by the House of Bishops, was consecrated by his brother bishops in the Ninth Province of the Episcopal Church plus a number of American bishops.
Bishop Melchor Saucedo, Suffragan of Mexico, acted as chief consecrator in his capacity as president of Province Nine assisted by Bishop William Crittenden of Erie and Bishop Lemuel Shirley of Panama. Crittenden is chairman of the House of Bishops Committee on Overseas Missions and Shirley was Carral's diocesan prior to his election. The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop, was unable to attend due to ill health.
Bishop Heber Gooden, retired Bishop of Panama, preached to a congregation made up of Guatemalan clergy and laity, members of diplomatic, government and expatriate community and a substantial representation of Carral's fellow Cubans in exile, many of whom travelled from Miami for the ceremony.
The new bishop's pectoral cross was presented during the entirely Spanish service by the anti-Castro Cuban community in the U.S.
Carral succeeds Bishop William Frey, now Coadjutor of Colorado, who was deported in 1971 by the Guatemalan government.
The examining bishops at the service were Bishop David Reed, Coadjutor of Kentucky and former bishop of Columbia, and Bishop Jose G. Saucedo, Bishop of Mexico.
Other bishops participating in the consecration which was held in conjunction with meetings of the House of Bishops of the Ninth Province were:
Edward Haynsworth of Nicaragua, Francisco Reus-Froylan of Puerto Rico, Leonardo Romero, Suffragan Bishop of Mexico, Ervine Swift, resigned bishop of Puerto Rico, Edward Turner of The Virgin Islands, Telesforo Isaac of the Dominican Republic, William Franklin of Colombia, and Antonio Ramos of Costa Rica.
The new bishop and his family will reside in Guatemala City.