Tulio Ramírez Padilla, a Venezuelan Roman Catholic bishop who helped document and advance physician José Gregorio Hernández’s beatification cause, died Aug. 12, 2026, at 66, L’Osservatore Romano reported.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Valencia on Aug. 5, 1984. He later served in parish, seminary and tribunal roles and became vicar general, a senior diocesan deputy.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed him an auxiliary bishop of Caracas in 2012, and he received episcopal ordination that July. Auxiliary bishops assist the head of an archdiocese. Beginning in 2015, he served for six years as vice-postulator of Hernández’s beatification cause, helping document and present the case in the formal Catholic process for declaring someone blessed. During that work, the cause recorded 2,461 testimonies from Venezuela and other countries, and more than 7 million devotional cards were distributed.
At the April 30, 2021, beatification rite in Caracas, Ramírez Padilla joined the cause team to present the case and read a short biography of Hernández. The rite formally proclaimed Hernández blessed, and the six-year assignment ended in May 2021.
