Celestino Aós Braco

Celestino Aós Braco OFMCap (born 6 April 1945) is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago in Chile from 2019 to 2023, after being apostolic administrator there for nine months.

Two years later, he was elected superior of the Capuchin community in Los Ángeles and subsequently he was transferred to Recreo (Viña del Mar), becoming the episcopal vicar for the consecrated life of the Diocese of Valparaíso.

[2][3] Pope Francis named him Bishop of Copiapó on 25 July 2014, and he received his episcopal ordination on 18 October from the apostolic nuncio to Chile, Ivo Scapolo.

[4] On 23 March 2019, Francis gave him the additional position of Apostolic Administrator of Santiago,[4][5] and Aós took up his responsibilities at a Mass there the next day.

[6] On 18 April 2019, Aós Braco refused communion to at least two people who knelt to receive it, though norms allow communicants to stand or kneel.

[9] At Aós Braco's installation as archbishop on 11 January 2020 a small group of protestors lit gas canisters in the cathedral as part of the ongoing anti-government protests, targeting him as "the highest Catholic authority in the country for his silence and complicity with the government".