Pope Francis appointed Bishop Gustavo Oscar Carrara, 51, who until now was Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, as the new Archbishop of La Plata (Argentina).
The appointment was made public on the morning of Thursday, November 21, simultaneously in Rome and Buenos Aires, where the Apostolic Nunciature transmitted it through the AICA agency.
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In La Plata, Bishop Carrara will succeed Bishop Gabriel Mestre, whom the Holy Father asked to resign last May due to issues related to the situation in recent months in the Diocese of Mar del Plata, where he had been bishop until July 2023.
Since then, the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of La Plata was Mons. Alberto Germán Bochatey.
Upon hearing the news of his appointment, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Monsignor Jorge García Cuerva, thanked “Monsignor Gustavo for his life and dedication among us.”
“I thank God for having worked together, sharing ‘the daily life’ with its challenges, problems and joys, as companions on the journey and brothers in the mission,” he said.
The archbishop encouraged the faithful to accompany Bishop Carrara with prayer and entrusted his life and new pastoral mission to Our Lady of Luján, Patroness of Argentina.
Who is Monsignor Gustavo Oscar Carrara, the new Archbishop of La Plata?
Known as the “villero bishop,” Bishop Gustavo Oscar Carrara is a native of Buenos Aires and was trained at the Immaculate Conception Metropolitan Seminary of that archdiocese.
He completed his ecclesiastical studies at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina Santa María de los Buenos Aires (UCA).
He was ordained a priest on October 24, 1998, by the then archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mons. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, today Pope Francis.
He was vicar in several parishes in the City of Buenos Aires, including the sanctuary of San Cayetano, and parish priest in the neighborhoods of Villa Soldati and Villa 1-11-14, in Bajo Flores. He worked in areas such as Youth Ministry, Catholic Action and Villera Pastoral.
On November 20, 2017, Pope Francis appointed him titular bishop of Tasbalta and auxiliary of Buenos Aires.
He was consecrated bishop by Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli, in a ceremony attended by a crowd, many of them faithful from the towns who came to celebrate their beloved “villager priest” and carried on litters to the door of the Metropolitan Cathedralwhere together they prayed a Hail Mary for the new bishop.
Until his appointment as Archbishop of La Plata he was vicar general, episcopal vicar for the Pastoral of Villas and episcopal vicar of Education of the Buenos Aires archdiocese.
In the last Plenary Assembly of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, held days ago, he was elected President of Cáritas Argentina.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.