Bishop of Encarnación
Francisco Javier Pistilli Scorzara was elected Bishop of Encarnación on November 15, 2014, and his consecration and installation took place on December 20, 2014. Biography: He was born on May 26, 1965, in Asunción, Paraguay. He is the third child of Nicolás Pistilli Statunatto (b. 1932) and María Scorzara Fabio (b. 1932), both born in Paraguay and of Italian immigrant descent. His brothers are Ramón Eugenio (b. 1959) and Nicolás Alberto (b. 1961). He was baptized at the Parish of San Miguel Arcángel, in the Ciudad Nueva neighborhood of Asunción, on July 11, 1965, by Father Antonio Fontana of the Servants of Charity (Don Guanella). He received his First Communion at the same parish on October 27, 1974. There, too, he received the Sacrament of Confirmation on October 11, 1980, from Monsignor Ismael Rolón, Archbishop of Asunción. He completed his primary and secondary education at the Colegio Cristo Rey (run by the Society of Jesus) in Asunción, attending from 1971 to 1983. He entered the School of Medicine at the National University of Asunción in 1984, studying there until 1987. During his youth, he served as a catechist at the San Miguel Arcángel Parish and participated in its youth groups. He joined the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement in 1985. He sealed his Covenant of Love with the Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt at the Tupãrenda Shrine on October 18, 1987. In 1988, he entered the First Ibero-American Novitiate of the Schoenstatt Fathers in Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Upon completing his novitiate, he made his first Consecration-Covenant in Germany on March 25, 1990. He pursued studies in Philosophy and Theology at the Franciscan and Capuchin Institute in Münster, Germany, completing them in 1996. He made his perpetual Consecration-Covenant with the Schoenstatt Fathers Secular Institute on November 9, 1996, at the Zion Shrine in Germany—the same day he was ordained a deacon at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Schoenstatt, Germany. He was ordained a priest on May 10, 1997, in Tupãrenda, Paraguay, by Monsignor Catalino Claudio Giménez Medina. He served as parochial vicar at the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Luque from 1997 to 1999. From 2000 to 2004, he engaged in various pastoral activities for the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement at the Youth Shrine in Asunción and in Ciudad del Este, particularly as an advisor to the Movement's Male Youth branch. From 2004 until February 2012, he served as Novice Master at the Schoenstatt Fathers' novitiate in Tupãrenda, Paraguay, overseeing the formation of four groups of novices. In December 2011, he was elected Regional Superior of the Schoenstatt Fathers for the "Father Region" (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy, and Nigeria) for the 2011–2017 term. During the 2012–2014 period, he served as an advisor to the Schoenstatt Family in Uruguay. He held the position of Regional Superior until his appointment as Bishop of Encarnación on November 15, 2014; his episcopal consecration and installation took place on December 20, 2014.