Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Asunción

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Asunción (Latin: Archidioecesis Sanctissimae Assumptionis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Paraguay. It was created as the Diocese of Paraguay by Pope Paul III on July 1, 1547, and was elevated to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Pius XI on May 1, 1929, with the suffragan sees of Benjamín Aceval, Caacupé, Carapeguá, Ciudad del Este, Concepción, Coronel Oviedo, Encarnación, San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, San Lorenzo, San Pedro, and Villarrica del Espíritu Santo.

The archdiocese's mother church and thus seat of its archbishop is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. As the only metropolitan in Paraguay, it is the principal episcopal see of that country. As of 2012 the Archbishop of Asunción was Eustaquio Cuquejo Verga, CSSR, having been appointed by Pope John Paul II on June 15, 2002. On Tuesday, November 8, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI, appointed Bishop Edmundo Valenzuela Mellid Pontian, S.D.B., as Coadjutor Archbishop of the Archdiocese. Until then he had served as Vicar Apostolic of the Apostolic Vicariate of Chaco Paraguayo, with the ecclesiastical rank of Bishop (Vicariates Apostolic are a type of jurisdiction that rank below a diocese). He was born in Villarrica of Espiritu Santo, Paraguay, on November 19, 1944. He was ordained to the priesthood on April 3, 1971, as a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He received a licentiate in theology from the Salesian University in Rome. At one time, he was a missionary in Angola (1991–2006). On February 13, 2006, he was named Titular Bishop of Uzal and appointed Vicar Apostolic of Chaco, Paraguay, receiving episcopal ordination on April 22, 2006. As part of the Episcopal Conference of Paraguay, he serves as Chairman of the Commission for Catholic Education. The archdiocese has 1.58 million Catholics (90.6%) in 2012.

Ordinaries

Diocese of Paraguay

Erected: 1 July 1547
Latin Name: de Paraguay

• Juan de los Barrios, OFM (1547–52)
• Pedro de la Torre, OFM (1554–73)
• Alfonso Guerra (bishop), OP (1579–92)
• Thomas Vásquez de Liaño (1596–99)
• Martín Ignacio de Loyola (1601–08)
• Reginaldo de Lizárraga, OP (1609)
• Lorenzo Pérez de Grado (1615–19)
• Tomás de la Torre Gibaja, OP (1620–28)
• Cristóbal de Aresti Martínez de Aguilar, OSB (1629–35)
• Francisco de la Serna, O.S.A. (1635–38)
• Bernardino de Cárdenas Ponce, O.F.M. (1640–66)
• Gabriel de Guilléstegui, O.F.M. (1666–70)
• Ferdinandus de Valcácer (1672)
• Faustino Casas Hernández, O. de M. (1674–86)
• Sebastián de Pastrana, OdeM (1693–1700)
• Pedro Díaz de Durana (1704–18)
• José Luis Palos Bord, OFM (1724–38)
• José Cayetano Paravicino, OFM (1738–47)
• Bernardo José Pérez de Oblitas (1747–56)
• Manuel Antonio de la Torre (1756–62)
• Emmanuel López de Espinosa (1762–70)
• Juan José Priego y Caro, O.P. (1772–79)
• Luis Velasco y Maeda, OFM (1779–92)
• Nicolás Videla del Pino (1802–07)
• Pedro García de Panés, OFM (1807–38)
• Pietro Giovanni Aponte (1879–91)
• Juan Sinforiano Bogarín (1894–1949)

Archdiocese of Asunción

Elevated: 1 May 1929
Latin Name: Sanctissimae Assumptionis

• Juan José Aníbal Mena Porta (1949–70)
• Ismael Blas Rolón Silvero, SDB (1970–89)
• Felipe Santiago Benítez Ávalos (1989–2002)
• Eustaquio Pastor Cuquejo Verga, CSSR (2002–14)
• Edmundo Ponziano Valenzuela Mellid, S.D.B. (born 2014)

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Paraguay

External links

• Official site
• Catholic-Hierarchy
• GCatholic.org

See also: List of Roman Catholic dioceses in Paraguay