Alvaro del Portillo was born in
Madrid on 11 March 1914. He was the third of eight children to the devout Ramón del Portillo Pardo and Clementina Diez de Solano Portillo; the couple had married on 11 January 1908. He was
baptized on 17 March in the parish of Saint Joseph. He studied
civil engineering and after obtaining his
doctorate at the
University of Madrid taught at its School of Engineering. He briefly worked with the Bureau of Highways and Bridges in the provinces crossed by the rivers
Júcar,
Duero and
Ebro. He received his
Confirmation on 28 December 1916 from the
Bishop of Siguenza Eustaquio Nieto y Martín and went on to receive his
First Communion on 12 May 1921. In 1935, he joined Opus Dei and was subsequently ordained to the
priesthood on June 25, 1944 by Bishop Leopoldo Eijo y Garay of
Madrid as one of the first three men ordained for Opus Dei He continued his studies to obtain a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters in history in 1944 from
Central University of Madrid, with a dissertation entitled
Discoveries and Exploration on the California Coast. In 1948 he earned a Doctorate in Canon Law from the
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum He then dedicated himself exclusively to the ministry and government of Opus Dei as its Secretary General. During the pontificate of
Pope Pius XII (1939–1958), he worked in several Dicasteries of the
Holy See. He met with that pontiff in a private audience on 4 June 1943 and met with Giovanni Battista Montini (the future
Pope Paul VI) on the following 17 June. In 1963, he was named by
Pope John XXIII as a consultant on the Pontifical Commission for the revision of the Code of
Canon Law. Pope Paul VI named him consultant on several post-Conciliar commissions. In 1975, he was chosen general president of the Opus Dei and successor of
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and in 1982, the
Holy See appointed him as the first
Prelate of Opus Dei. In 1991, he was
consecrated a
bishop by
Pope John Paul II, with Archbishops
Giovanni Battista Re and
Justin Francis Rigali serving as co-consecrators. That same year, he attended
World Youth Day in
Częstochowa. He has written extensively about pastoral and ecclesiological matters that examine among others, the role of the lay faithful in the
Roman Catholic Church, the human side of priestly formation, the dynamics and functionality of pastoral structures. As Prelate, he also served as Grand Chancellor of the
University of Piura in
Peru. Shortly after his 80th birthday, he returned to
Rome on a
pilgrimage from the
Holy Land. He died shortly thereafter. He had celebrated his last Mass at the
Church of the Cenacle. Later that day,
Pope John Paul II came to pray before del Portillo's remains, which now lie in the crypt of the Church of the Prelature, Our Lady of Peace at Bruno Buozzi 75, Rome. ==Contribution to the Second Vatican Council==