Pope Francis appointed Mons. Luis Manuel López Alfaro New Bishop of Tapachula, diocese located south of Chiapas, Mexico, in a strategic region by its border with Guatemala and its key role as a passage of migrants.
Mons. López Alfaro served as auxiliary bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, also Chiapas, and will now assume pastoral leadership in an area marked by significant challenges, such as violence derived from territorial control by organized crime and attention to thousands of migrants entering Mexico.
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The Diocese of Tapachula has an estimated population of three million inhabitants, 110 priests and 53 Catholic temples. The episcopal headquarters was vacant since July 2024, after the appointment of Mons. Jaime Calderón Calderón as Archbishop of León, Guanajuato.
The Apostolic Nunciature communicates, through the General Secretariat of the Mexican Episcopate Conference, which its holiness @Pontifex_es He has deigned to appoint Bishop of Tapachula to Mons. Luis Manuel López Alfaro, until now auxiliary bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Nos… pic.twitter.com/JIW5dhVWnI
— CEM (@IglesiaMexico) April 9, 2025
Who is Mons. Luis Manuel López Alfaro?
According to reported The Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), Luis Manuel López Alfaro was born on June 21, 1963 in Mexico City. He concluded his studies in Agriculture in 1984, but a year before concluding the University he decided to enter the Toluca Conciliar Seminary to initiate his priestly training.
He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1991 for the Archdiocese of Toluca. Throughout his priestly ministry he held various positions in this archdiocese and later moved to the diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas.
On June 6, 2020, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of said diocese. His episcopal ordination took place on August 28 of the same year.
Diego López Colín
I am a graduate of journalism at the Carlos Septién García school with experience of religious institutional communication. Since 2016 I write for digital media and, since 2018, I report the most important news about the Catholic event in Mexico for the Ewtn news channel. ACI Press correspondent in Mexico since 2023.