Fr. Benigno Condori Chuchi is a Franciscan priest whom Pope Francis has chosen as the new Prelate Bishop of Ayaviri in Peru. “We are like chess pieces: we are here, we are there, wherever the Lord proposes us,” he says.
In statements to Diary Without Bordersthe bishop-elect thanked “God for this great day and what better news we have received on the day of our father Saint Francis, today, October 4.” “It fills us with spiritual joy,” he added.
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After pointing out that there is still no date for his consecration and inauguration in Ayaviri, Bishop Condori explained that his good arrival to the faithful is not only due to his charisma, but “to the work of God because God is the one who sows , God is the one who harvests and God is the one who sustains everything we do. One is just an intermediary.”
“We are like chess pieces: we are here, we are there, wherever the Lord proposes us and that is what we do. And we assume this great mission with the same motivation,” he stressed.
The fight against hunger during the covid pandemic
Regarding the work he carried out in the parish during the covid pandemic in Peru, where about 200 thousand people died according to official figures in the midst of one of the strictest quarantines in 2020, the priest reported that in the San Antonio de Padua parish in Puno They fed more than 400 people a day.
Now they can feed about 180 people, including the elderly and children, who are offered “what God provides us through generous people.”
When asked if he was afraid of dying, the priest responded that with his superior the reflection they shared was the following: “If the Lord has put us here, it is so that we can give food. If we have it, we have to provide it.” “They are the sick, the hungry, the ones who need you today,” he said.
Who is the new Prelate Bishop of Ayaviri?
The elected Bishop of Ayaviri was born on March 22, 1971 in Puno. He entered the Order of Franciscan Friars Minor in 1989. He made his perpetual profession in 1997 and was ordained a priest on September 9, 2000.
In the Franciscan province of the mission.
He has been parish priest of the Cristo Pobre parish in Cuzco, in the Espíritu Santo parish in Tacna and in the San Antonio de Padua parish in Puno, from 2018 to date.
Pope Francis appoints the new Bishop of Pereira in Colombia
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Nelson Jair Cardona Ramírez, until now Bishop of San José del Guaviare, as the new Bishop of Pereira in Colombia, on the same day as the appointment of Bishop Condori Chuchi.
“In the first days of December I will have to go to that place to start a new experience there (Pereira). “It has been eight years in your midst, eight years full of challenges, joys and achievements, also obviously with difficulties, with issues that we did not manage to address and others that remain in progress,” said the prelate in a message to the faithful of San José del Guaviare.
“At the end of the day, I have tried to do all of them with the greatest love and enthusiasm that God has put in my heart,” he added. After specifying that he will use this time to organize what is still pending, the bishop shared that “it has been eight years in which I have lived happily among you.”
Mons. Cardona was born on January 18, 1969 in Norcasia (Caldas). He entered the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Major Seminary in Manizales. He was ordained a priest on December 12, 1992 for the Diocese of La Dorada-Guaduas.
He has been a seminary teacher and trainer, diocesan delegate for Vocational Ministry, delegate for the pastoral care of Ordained Ministries.
On May 7, 2016, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of San José del Guaviare, receiving episcopal consecration on June 18 of the same year.
As reported by the website of the Colombian episcopate, was appointed president of the Episcopal Commission for the Culture of Care on July 3, 2024.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.