Rafael Vázquez Jiménez is a Catholic priest ordained on 11 September 2004 and holds a PhD in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (2011), graduating with a dissertation on the Church as sacrament and ecumenical ecclesiology. He is a tenured professor at the San Pablo Higher Institute of Religious Sciences in Malaga and at the Aggregated Centre “San Pablo”, affiliated with the Faculty of Theology of Loyola Andalucía University. He also serves as visiting professor at the Catholic University of Valencia and the Pontifical University of Salamanca.
Since 2026 he has served as Consultant to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue of the Holy See. He is Director of the Secretariat of the Episcopal Subcommission for Interconfessional Relations and Interreligious Dialogue of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (since 2019), Director of the Secretariat of the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith (since 2022), Episcopal Delegate for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Diocese of Málaga (since 2015), and Secretary of the Spanish Interconfessional Dialogue Board (since 2022).
His research focuses on ecclesiology, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, religious freedom, and II Vatican Council. He has authored books and peer-reviewed articles in leading journals and serves on international academic committees. He has also edited and co-edited several academic volumes and regularly participates in international conferences on ecumenism, theology, and interreligious dialogue.