Jose Arturo Cepeda

Bishop Jose Arturo Cepeda Escobedo, STL, STD, 41, was born in San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico on May 15, 1969, to Jose Cepeda and Maria del Socorro Escobedo. He received his elementary and high school education in Catholic schools in San Luis Potosi under the direction of Hermanas and Hermanos Josefinos.

Bishop Cepeda then completed a year of spiritual formation, followed by philosophy studies at Seminario Arquidiocesano Guadalupano Josefino in San Luis Potosi. After moving with his family to San Antonio, Texas, Bishop Cepeda continued his seminary studies, later earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies with a minor in psychology from the College Seminary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Returning to San Antonio’s Assumption Seminary, Bishop Cepeda received a Masters of Divinity degree and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Patricio Flores on June 1, 1996, at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas.

After earning a Master of Arts degree in Biblical theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio while assigned as parochial vicar of San Antonio’s San Fernando Cathedral, Bishop Cepeda was asked to study at St. Thomas Aquinas “Angelicum,” Pontifical University in Rome, where he was awarded a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) and Doctorate in Sacred Theology (STD) degrees, defending his dissertation in Spiritual Theology in 2005.