Bishop Moacir Silva, until then serving as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of São José dos Campos, was named to serve as the next Metropolitan Archbishop-elect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ribeirão Preto by Pope Francis on Wednesday, April 24, 2013.

Silva was born on July 16, 1954, in São José dos Campos, Brazil, in Sao Paulo State, the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of São José dos Campos which he eventually headed.

He was ordained a priest on December 6, 1986, and was incardinated in the Roman Catholic Diocese of São José dos Campos.

On October 20, 2004, he was appointed Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of São José dos Campos by Pope John Paul II in the last months of his pontificate.

From 2008, he has served as a member of the Brazilian National Episcopal Commission for Ecclesiastical Courts of Second Instance (of Appeal), and in 2011 he became Vice Chairman of the Regional Bishops' Conference of the State of Sao Paulo.