Dom Arlindo Gomes Furtado

Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado, the fourth son of Ernesto Robalo and Maria Furtado, was born on October 4, 1949, in Figueira das Naus, Santa Catarina, Santiago Island. He was baptized in the Parish of Santa Catarina in August 1951.

He entered the Minor Seminary of São José (Praia) on October 1, 1963, where he did his high school studies. On September 11, 1971, he left for Coimbra, Portugal, in order to continue his studies in the Major Seminary of that city. After finishing his theology course at the Instituto Superior de Estudos Teológicos, he returned to Cape Verde in 1976.

He was ordained deacon by Bishop Paulino Livramento Évora on 9 of May of the same year, in the Seminary of St. Joseph. He worked in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Graça. In the same year, on 18 July 1976, he was ordained priest. After his ordination, he was appointed Parish Vicar of Our Lady of Grace.

From 1978 to 1986 he served as Rector of the minor seminary of San José. In August 1986 he left for Rome. He graduated in Biblical Sciences from the Biblical Institute of Rome. He returned to Cape Verde in 1990 and lives in the seminary of San José.
For a year he supported the areas of Lém-Cachorro and Achada São Filipe. In that same year he taught English at the Liceu Domingos Ramos. From 1991 to 1995 he taught Biblical Greek, Hebrew, History and Geography of the Biblical People and some other subjects of the Old Testament, in the Higher Institute of Theological Studies of Coimbra. During his stay in Portugal he was parish administrator of two communities: Amel and Vila Pouca.

He collaborated in the translation team of the "New Bible of the Capuchins", translating the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastics, Ben Sirá, and made the respective introductions. In 1995 he returned to Cape Verde to take over the parish of Nossa Senhora da Graça. He was a member of the National Education Council, a teacher at the Police Training School. Until 2004 he was Vicar General of the Diocese of Cape Verde.

On 9 December the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, created the Diocese of Mindelo and appointed Father Arlindo Gomes Furtado as its first Bishop. On 22 February 2004, he was ordained Bishop by Bishop Paulino Livramento Évora, in the Quebra Canela area of Praia, and also bishops from Guinea Bissau, Portugal, Senegal and other members of the regional Episcopal Conference were present.

On 15 August 2009, Archbishop Arlindo was sworn in as Bishop of Santiago, during the celebrations of the feast of the Patroness of the city of Praia, Our Lady of Grace, and Monsignor Luis Mariano Montemayor, from Argentina, Apostolic Nuncio to Senegal and Cape Verde and apostolic delegate to Mauritania, was present.

D. Arlindo Furtado, who is the 34th Bishop of Cape Verde and the second one of Cape Verdean nationality, besides coordinating the pastoral care of the Diocese of Mindelo as Apostolic Administrator, is keen to respond to various requests from the communities of the diaspora, in an intense pastoral activity of those who advocate a pastoral care of proximity that echoes his episcopal motto: "Jesus, The Good Shepherd".

It should be noted that the 15 cardinals who elected are from 14 countries - only one of them is from the Vatican. For the first time they were appointed cardinals from Cape Verde, Burma and Tonga, representing the Pope's desire to have a College of Cardinals with representatives of the "universal nature" of the Church. "The Pope does not feel bound by tradition," according to which the world's largest cities should have cardinals appointed," said the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.