Questions of next Lima bishop cast shadow over pope’s Peruvian trip

The replacement of Castillo could impact the pope's upcoming trip.

Pope Leo XIV is set to visit Peru, the country in which he developed most of his pastoral and episcopal ministry, in November.

The trip will likely prove to be a memorable moment in his pontificate. But it will also be tense, due to the seemingly never-ending political crisis in Peru, as well as several episcopal scandals in the country.

In addition, questions of episcopal succession in the country’s capital are hovering over trip, and influencing the itinerary, according to local sources.

The Cathedral of Lima. Credit: Gatodemichi, Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0.

With less than four months to go, there is still no confirmed date for the Peruvian trip, and uncertainty remains over which cities Pope Leo XIV will visit beyond Lima and Chiclayo.

The lack of clarity is partly the result of internal tensions among those organizing the visit, further complicated by the presidential transition of power in Peru scheduled for July 28, after which several important decisions on the trip’s logistics can be finalized.

Cardinal Carlos Castillo of Lima pushed for his diocese, as the country’s capital, to be at the center of the trip, according to sources close to the trip’s organization. However, the pope seems more likely to spend more time in Chiclayo, where he served as a bishop for almost a decade.

Part of the reason why, the same sources said, is that Pope Leo wishes to avoid giving too much focus to Castillo during the trip.

Castillo’s tenure in Lima has been controversial due to his alleged mishandling of several abuse and sexual misconduct cases, including in his own diocesan seminary, and alleged financial misconduct at the diocesan humanitarian offices.

Some local priests think Castillo has been detrimental to the general morale of the clergy in Lima, partially because of his controversial and confusing statements on doctrinal and moral issues, and his support for the archdiocese’s pontifical university, called by a diocesan source “the Peruvian’s progressive left think tank.”

Rumors abounded that Castillo, who is 76, would be replaced last year. But the pope has kept him in his position so far.

On one hand, the country’s political situation is already sufficiently fragile, and a change at the country’s primatial see might be interpreted as a political decision, further fueling the crisis. On the other hand, sources close to the Peruvian nunciature and the Archdiocese of Lima told The Pillar that the bishop who was favored to succeed Castillo was diagnosed with cancer, which delayed the process.

The presidential elections in April, the runoff in June and the papal visit in November also may have factored into a papal decision to allow Castillo to stay in his post at least until after the visit.

Moreover, the diplomatic agreement between Peru and the Holy See indicates that the Holy See must inform the Peruvian government of episcopal appointments before they are publicly announced.

While the Church doesn’t need the government’s approval for episcopal appointments, appointing the new archbishop to the country’s primatial see without informing the upcoming government might have been seen as starting off on the wrong foot with a new administration.

Several sources in Lima told The Pillar, however, that Castillo’s succession is already underway and that questionnaires about candidates are being sent out to local bishops and priests.

Most consider that Bishop Lizardo Estrada, OSA, auxiliary bishop of Cusco, is one of the frontrunners to succeed Castillo.

Estrada was then-Father Prevost’s seminary student in the 1990s. Estrada has previously said in interviews that Fr. Prevost was even his spiritual director during his years as an Augustinian novice.

Estrada also has a reputation for being an apt administrator as secretary general of CELAM, the Council of Latin American bishops’ conference, a role in which he has served since 2023. Last year, Pope Leo also appointed Estrada as a member of the Dicastery for Communications and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He is widely thought to be a close collaborator with the pope in Peruvian and Latin American Church affairs.

Bishop Marco Cortez of Tacna y Moquegua is also among the names under consideration. Cortez was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Chiclayo in 1985, and later served as rector of the diocesan seminary between 1995 and 2004. He has been the Bishop of Tacna y Moquegua since 2006 and is a member of the Society of the Holy Cross, a priestly society connected to Opus Dei.

Sources in Peru told The Pillar that Cortez was considered a rising star among the Peruvian episcopate, but his prospects of being appointed to a larger diocese diminished after the election of Pope Francis, as happened with several Peruvian bishops associated with Opus Dei or seen as theologically conservative.

Castillo’s predecessor, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, was considered something of a conservative firebrand during his tenure in Lima. A member of Opus Dei, he was known for provocative public statements, and for disciplining priests who were considered too liberal or too close to liberation theology.

Cipriani was accused in early 2025 of sexually abusing a minor in the 1980s. Following the allegations, it emerged that Pope Francis had privately imposed a penal precept on him in December 2019 limiting his ministry and public appearances.

Cipriani disputed the allegations and alleged that Francis had verbally removed the precept months later and allowed him to resume his pastoral activity. Cipriani was re-appointed to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in 2021, a year and a half after Francis allegedly removed the precept.

While local observers consider Cortez’s pastoral style distinct from Cipriani’s, his ties to Opus Dei could still be enough to draw suspicion from some members of the Lima clergy, even if such concerns may be unfounded.

Given the recent history of Peru’s primatial see, the pope may prefer someone who arrives with a clean slate and can help lower the temperature in the archdiocese. In that regard, Estrada could be a more suitable choice.

However, sources close to the Peruvian nunciature told The Pillar that the pope prefers Estrada to succeed Archbishop Richard Alarcón, who is 74, as Archbishop of Cusco. Estrada is only 52 years old, so the prospect of him leading the Archdiocese of Lima for more than two decades might push the pope away from appointing him to the position.

Another option that has risen as a possibility for Lima is Archbishop Javier del Río of Arequipa. Del Río, affiliated with the Neocathecumenal Way, has served as Archbishop of Arequipa since 2006. Several sources close to the Peruvian bishops’ conference told The Pillar that del Río is one of Pope Leo’s most trusted bishops.

In fact, the pope appointed del Río as adjunct apostolic commissary for the suppression of the Sodalitium Christiane Vitae, a Peruvian-based religious community suppressed in January 2025 by Pope Francis after decades of complaints of abuse within the organization.

Sources close to the Lima nunciature told The Pillar that two other options under consideration, although thought to be less likely possibilities, are Bishop Luis Alberto Barrera, MCCI, Bishop of Callao, and the pope’s successor in Chiclayo, Bishop Edinson Farfán, OSA.

While some in Peru have rumored that Pope Leo could replace Castillo even before the trip, this seems somewhat unlikely.

Several sources close to the trip’s organization told The Pillar that Lima will have an unusually small role during the papal trip because the pope doesn’t want to give Castillo too much protagonism. However, if the pope is planning to replace Castillo before the trip, this wouldn’t be an issue.

The trip is expected to take place between November 10 and November 16 or 17. While the pope is expected to spend three or four full days in Chiclayo, he will only spend the initial and final days of the trip in Lima, sources said.

While the itinerary may include an additional day in Lima, most of his time will actually be spent visiting nearby dioceses rather than the capital itself.

For example, Leo is expected to visit a prison in the neighboring diocese of Chosica and to hold a meeting with the youth in Callao. Both the cities Chosica and Callao are within Lima’s metropolitan area, and are within a one-hour drive of Lima, but fall within different dioceses.

In Lima, the pope is expected to meet the country’s president, Keiko Fujimori, and to be present at two major events: a diocesan-organized event at a football stadium in Lima and a Mass at the Las Palmas airbase, the same place in which Pope Francis celebrated Mass in 2018.

A diocesan source told The Pillar that Cardinal Castillo wanted to hold the Mass in downtown Lima because doing it at the airbase would mean that he would have to share the organization of the Mass and accompanying the pope during the day with the military ordinary, Juan Carlos Vera, MSC.

Along with his time in Chiclayo, Lima, and neighboring cities, the pope will also spend a day in Cusco, the former capital of the Inca empire, and a day in Pucallpa, a city in the Peruvian jungle.

Sources close to the organization of the trip told The Pillar that, during his time in Chiclayo, the pope is expected to travel in a helicopter operated by the Peruvian Air Force’s 8th Air Group for a pastoral visit to majority-Indigenous towns north of Chiclayo.

Several sources told The Pillar that Castillo and Cardinal Pedro Barreto SJ, archbishop emeritus of Huancayo, wanted to include Piura as part of the trip, and interim president José María Balcázar also said the pope would go to Piura, but the idea seems to have been rejected.