Dr. Adolfo González Montes, Bishop of Almería (Spain) since 2002, is also the President of the Spanish Bishop’s Commission for Interconfessional Relations.  Previous to this, he was Bishop of Avila (1997). 

He was born in Salamanca (1946).  He graduated in Philosohy and Theology in his hometown, where he also was ordained as Catholic priest (1972).  At the Eberhard-Karls-Universität of Tübingen (Germany), he obtained his Doctorate in Theology.  His PhD in Philosophy was earned at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. A Lecturer in Theology at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca since 1977, he became Professor of Fundamental Theology in 1988.  A few years sooner, in 1982, he had been appointed Director of the Centro Juan XXIII (for Ecumenical and Oriental Studies)—and of its Journal Diálogo Ecuménico—aposition that required him to organize several ecumenical Conferences at national and international levels.

Prior to his becoming as Bishop a full regular member of the Conferencia Episcopal Española (Spanish Conference of Catholic Bishops), he was a consultor for Interdenominational Relations for this institution and for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.  He has also been a member of the Societas Oecumenica Europea, and of its executive board for four years, participating in the organizing committee of the II European Ecumenical Assembly (Graz, Austria, 1997).