Javier Echevarría Rodríguez (Madrid, June 14, 1932 - Rome, December 12, 2016) was a Spanish bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Until his death, he was the head of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei. He held doctorates in both civil and canon law.

Within the Roman Curia, the governing body of the Catholic Church, he was a member of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

He wrote a number of books on spirituality: Paths to God: Building a Christian Life in the 21st Century, Para servir a la Iglesia, Getsemaní, Eucaristía y vida cristiana. He also wrote his reminiscences of St. Josemaria: Memoria del beato Josemaría.

Pope Benedict XVI said on the fiftieth anniversary of Echevarria's ordination that his pastoral work "provides effective help to the Church in her urgent evangelization of present-day society" and noted the prelate's concern for "culture and the sciences...the defense of life, the family and marriage, and the formation and pastoral care of young people."[1]

Echevarría Rodríguez was born in Madrid, Spain, on June 14, 1932.

Formation

Echevarría Rodríguez began work as the personal secretary of Josemaría Escrivá before being ordained a priest of Opus Dei on August 7, 1955.

In 1954 Echevarría Rodríguez earned a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum

Echevarría Rodríguez was appointed the Secretary General of Opus Dei in 1975, upon the succession of Msgr. Escrivá by Father Álvaro del Portillo as Prelate, or head, of Opus Dei. Echevarría later became Vicar General in 1982, when Opus Dei became, on the Pope's initiative, a personal prelature.

With the death of Bishop Álvaro del Portillo on March 23, 1994, a period of mourning followed. Echevarría Rodríguez was elected by Opus Dei's General Council as the second Prelate of Opus Dei. He was subsequently confirmed by the Holy See on April 20, 1994, and was then appointed Titular Bishop of Cilibia by Pope John Paul II on November 21, 1994. He was consecrated a bishop by the pope, with Bishops Giovanni Battista Re and Jorge María Mejía as co-consecrators, on January 6, 1995.

Echevarría Rodríguez serves as the chancellor of the University of Navarra in Spain, the University of Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines, and various other universities under the spiritual care of Opus Dei.

Echevarria Rodríguez participated in the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for America in 1997 and of Europe in 1999, and also of the General Ordinary Assembly of 2001 and 2005. On Tuesday, September 18, 2012, Echevarría Rodríguez was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as one of the papally-appointed Synod Fathers for the October 2012 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.

On July 9, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI greeted Echevarria Rodríguez on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, expressing his "esteem and affection":

Governing your Prelature and contemplating in it the action of God’s grace, you never cease exhorting its members—with your example, with your writings, with your words and your pastoral trips—to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose (Acts 11:23).

When you foster the eagerness for personal sanctity and the apostolic zeal of your priests and lay people, not only do you see the flock that has been entrusted to you grow, but you provide an effective help to the Church in her urgent evangelization of present-day society.

In the terrain of culture and the sciences, you strive to spread the Christian message in all environments, as is clearly seen in the recently established Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

You bear in your heart the defense of life, the family and marriage, and the formation and pastoral care of young people.

Works

He wrote works on spirituality such as:

• Memoria del beato Josemaría - reminiscences of Blessed Josemaria
• Itinerarios de vida cristiana - reflections around the turn of the millennium on the ways of Christian life
• Para servir a la Iglesia - a homily on serving the Church
• Getsemaní — about praying in union with Christ in his passion
• Eucaristía y vida cristiana — about the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of a Christian

Some excerpts from his works

• Christianity is God’s nearness to man. It is a close friendship and an intimate relationship between God and man. It expresses the familiarity of a beloved son welcomed with indescribable joy, music, celebration and a great banquet (cf. Lk 15: 22-24).— from Eucaristia y vida cristiana
• Love is the substance of happiness. To love and to know oneself loved is the only true response to the ultimate anxieties of the human heart...Augustine of Hippo briefly expressed this in writing: “Pondus meus, amor meus”. My love is my weight, that which gives me solidity, attracts me and exalts me. It transmits to me height and depth, it is the origin of my peace.
• "To all who received Him, He gave the power to become sons of God" (Jn 1:12). For a Christian, this is not just a way of speaking or calling. Awareness of divine filiation is rooted in a divine gift that transforms a person from within. St. John puts it this way: "See what love the Father has for us, that He has called us sons of God, and so we are!...We are truly children of God" (1 Jn 3:1-2). St. Josemaria concludes that "whoever is unaware of this is unaware of his innermost truth;" he has not yet discovered the deepest reality of his being, nor the meaning of his existence on this earth.
• The secret of the apostolic zeal of a disciple of Christ is rooted in his love for the Master. This is what moves him to give his life for the others, to spend it in helping them know the divine Word and to live according to the imperatives of the Love of God. His zeal for souls is born from a love for Christ, which like all true love, implies identification with the person loved.
• In the Seventh General Congregation of the SYNOD OF BISHOPS (FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 2012) H. Exc. Rev. Mons. Javier ECHEVARRÍA RODRÍGUEZ, Titular Bishop of Cilibia, Prelate of the Personal Prelature of Opus Dei made this intervention:

"The People of God would like the Bishops and priests to be masters of holiness, precisely because they seek it on a daily basis, through the sacramental life and through their own ministry. They must be men who pray with faith, who passionately love the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of the Confession, and who live them with sincere piety, to enrich themselves with graces and to be, therefore, bearers of the Good News to other priests and to all the faithful. Using those methods instituted by Jesus Christ in order to identify oneself with Him ensures that the faithful, listening to priests, listen to the Lord; seeing them pray, they in turn are moved to prayer. Aware that they frequently turn to Confession, they too will seek sacramental forgiveness." "It is beneficial also to reflect on the example of many saints, the Curate of Ars, Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Saint Josemaría Escrivá, and on the more recentexample of the Blessed John Paul II. As Benedict XVI reminds us, they have left a living example of love for the Sacrament of Penitence, and can reinforce the awareness of having to be Good Shepherds, who know how to give their life for their sheep. By also encouraging presbyters to regularly sit in the confessional, many souls will be cleansed of their sins, and from this ministry vocations for the seminary and for the religious life, as well as vocations for good fathers and mothers of families will bloom. It is also interesting to pay attention to homilies from the doctrinal point of view and with the “gift of tongues”. For many faithful, the Sunday Holy Mass, with its Homily, is the only occasion where they will hear the message of Christ. With evermore renewed commitment, preaching will be very effective, above all if it is directed also at one’s own soul: if one lives what one says and preaches what one lives."