Born in San Casimiro on 4 September 1922, he was the third of seven children. He knew the Salesians from an early age, attending elementary and middle schools in Valencia and then the San José High School in Los Teques. Entry into the Salesian novitiate in Bogotà was therefore pretty much inevitable. After religious formation and philosophical and theological studies, he was ordained a priest in Caracas on 4 September 1949 by his uncle, Archbishop Lucas Guillermo Castillo Hernández.
In 1950 he was sent to Turin to study canon law at the Salesian University and there, in 1953, he graduated with full marks. In September 1954 he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Canon Law at the Salesian University, where he taught for eleven years, first in Turin, until 1957, and then, with the transfer of the headquarters, in Rome, until 1965.
A brilliant mind, a great scholar and teacher, also endowed with a hardworking spirit and skilled in carrying out new projects, he did not go unnoticed by his Superiors first, and by the highest Vatican authorities who then over the years entrusted him with ever new and ever greater responsibilities.
In December 1965 he was appointed Provincial of Venezuela, but he did not complete years in that role before that he was called to serve as Regional Councillor for America South Cone in 1957. After four years the Special General Chapter in 1971-72 (GC20) elected him General Councillor for Youth Ministry.
But also in this case another appointment prevented him from completing the six-year term: on 26 March 1973, in fact, Pope Paul VI assigned him the episcopal title of Precausa and sent him back to his homeland as coadjutor Bishop of Trujillo. He received his episcopal ordination on the feast day of Mary Help of Christians, 24 May 1974, choosing Misericordia et Veritas as his episcopal motto.
A few months later he was recalled to Rome, to become, from 12 February 1975, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the revision of the Code of Canon Law (the current Dicastery for Legislative Texts). Later he also became a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Interpretation of the Decrees of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and a consultant to the Congregations for Catholic Education and the Sacraments. On 5 October 1981 he was also appointed President of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia.
On 22 May 1982 he was promoted to Pro-President of the Pontifical Commission for the revision of the Code of Canon Law and on 26 May he was elevated to archbishop.
After being created Cardinal in 1985, and after leaving the leadership of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts (at the time still the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts), he was entrusted, in December 1989, with the Presidency of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and later also for administering the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.
It was under his guidance that construction of the current Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican began, where the Holy Father Francis currently resides.
Never forgetting his origins and his land, on several occasions he criticised the anti-democratic drifts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. In fact, no representative of the Venezuelan government attended the Cardinal's funeral of the cardinal, though some representatives of regional governments not linked to the President took part. He died in Caracas on 16 October 2007.
