 He later received a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Angelicum of Rome, and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1962.Pope Paul VI appointed him auxiliary bishop of Quito in 1969, and in 1975 he was transferred to the diocese of Ibarra.In 1983, Pope John Paul II appointed him the first military bishop of Ecuador and in 1988 he moved him to Guayaquil, where he served as Archbishop from 1989.