Juan José was born in the municipality of Cretas, Aragon. One of his sisters still lives there, while the other died at a young age.
The village priest convinced him to enter the seminary of Zaragoza. He studied at education centres for missionaries in Leuven and Jerusalem as well. On 20 September 1970 he was ordained a priest. He then worked for the church in Zaragoza and in Zaire.[2]
Pope John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Zaragoza on 15 July 1996 and he was consecrated a bishop on 22 September by Elías Yanes Alvarez, Archbishop of Zaragoza.
He has been a member of the Commission of Social Ministry of the Spanish Episcopal Conference since 1996 and president of that commission from 2002 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2017.[2] On 6 November 2014, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for Bishops.[2] According to El Periodico, Omella engineered the November 2014 early retirement of Manuel Ureña Pastor as Archbishop of Zaragoza, whom the local press later reported had mishandled a charge of harassment against one of his priests.[3][4]
On 6 November 2015, Pope Francis appointed Omella Archbishop of Barcelona.[5] He was installed there on 26 December.[6]
On 21 May 2017, Pope Francis announced plans to make him a cardinal at a consistory scheduled for 28 June 2017.[7]El Diario said the appointment made clear that Pope Francis's preferred representatives in Spain were Omella and Carlos Osoro, the Archbishop of Madrid whom Francis made a cardinal in 2016, and not the recently elected leadership of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, perceived as more conservative. It noted that Omella's appointment to the Congregation for Bishops positioned him to influence the future of church leadership in Spain. It cited as well his pastoral letters on social issues and ties to Manos Unidas [es], which focuses on the problems of developing nations.[8][9] The consistory was held on 28 June as scheduled.[10] He was created as the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
Following the Catalan independence referendum in 2017 the Catalan government suggested that Omella and the Abbot of Montserrat should act as mediators between the region and Spanish authorities.[11]
^Gagliarducci, Andrea (22 May 2017). "Pope Francis' newest cardinals show a global Church". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 11 June 2017. The Spanish Bishops' Conference gathered for its general assembly in Madrid on March 15. Cardinal Ricardo Blázquez Pérez was re-elected as president for a second three-year mandate by a strong majority. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, archbishop of Valencia and former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, was elected vice-president. In the race for the presidency, Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, got four votes, while Archbishop Omella got just one vote.
^Omella, Juan José; Portolés Mombiela, Miguel (1991). La Aurora de Calanda, una antigua institución. Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Turolenses. ISBN84-404-8793-2.