On 8 September 2023, the Master of the Order, Br. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, appointed Br. Cristóbal Torres Iglesias, OP, son of the Province of St. Martin de Porres in the USA, as General Promoter for the Laity. Br. Cristóbal succeeding Br. Juan Ubaldo López Salamanca, OP, son of the Province of St. Louis Bertrand in Colombia.
Born in New York on 28 December 1971 to Cuban-born parents Gelacio Santiago Torres and Esperanza Iglesias Toribio, Br. Cristóbal and his sister María were raised in Hudson County, New Jersey. Br. Cristóbal entered the Dominican Order in 2009 and made his first profession on 8 August 2010. He was ordained to the diaconate on 19 October 2013, and the presbyterate on 21 June 2014.
Br. Cristóbal completed his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University; received a Master of Social Work at New York University; a Master of Divinity at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri; and a Doctorate of Ministry at Barry University in Miami, Florida.
In his province he served for nine years as University Chaplain and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Barry University. He has also served the Order as an interpreter and translator at numerous gatherings, including the International Congress for the Mission of the Order (2017), and the General Chapters of Trogir (2013), Bologna (2016), Biên Hòa (2019), and Tultenango (2022).
Br. Cristóbal is a visual artist who preaches through iconographical works and graphic novels. His works include: Dominican Last Supper; the design for the windows of St. Rose of Lima Chapel at Zanmi Beni children’s community in Port au Prince, Haiti; the Cor Jesu Chapel icon cross at Barry University; cover art for A Prophet to the Peoples: Paul Farmer’s Witness and Theological Ethics by Wipf and Stock Publishers; and various works featured in publications and private collections.
Br. Cristóbal looks forward to accompanying the brothers and sisters of the Dominican Laity and the International Dominican Youth Movement throughout the world as they live the Order’s preaching charism in profoundly varied ways, creatively bearing to others the fruits of their contemplation.
