Bishop Marco Antonio Merchán Ladino

Bishop Marco Antonio Merchán Ladino, Bishop of Neiva and Apostolic Administrator of Tierradentro, was born on April 28, 1970, at Monguí, in the Diocese of Duitama-Sogamoso. He completed his primary and secondary education in that municipality and entered the conciliar seminary of the Archdiocese of Tunja for his philosophical and theological formation. He obtained a licentiate in philosophy and religious sciences at the Santo Tomás University in Bogotá, and a licentiate and a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He was ordained a deacon on December 12, 1995, and a priest on November 23, 1996, being incardinated in the Diocese of Duitama-Sogamoso. He served as parish administrator of San Antonio de Padua in Duitama from 1996 to 1997, as chaplain of the Cándido Quintero home in Duitama in 1997, as parochial vicar of Nuestra Señora de Chiquinquirá in Sogamoso in 1997, as chaplain and teacher at the Guillermo León Valencia integrated institute in Duitama from 1997 to 2001, and as parish administrator of San Cayetano in 2001. He was diocesan delegate for family ministry from 1997 to 2001, judicial vicar of the diocese from 2006 to 2008, a judge of the single court of appeal for Colombia from 2007 to 2015, parish priest of Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Sogamoso from 2006 to 2008, parish priest of the cathedral of San Martín de Tours in Sogamoso from 2008, and from 2011 parish priest of the cathedral of San Lorenzo in Duitama and vicar general of the diocese. He was also a member of the college of consultors, of the presbyteral council and of the council for economic affairs of the Diocese of Duitama-Sogamoso. On October 26, 2016, he was appointed Bishop of Vélez. He received episcopal ordination on December 3, 2016, at Duitama, with Ettore Balestrero as principal consecrator and Misael Vacca Ramírez and Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga as co-consecrators, and he was installed on December 17, 2016. On April 14, 2023, he was appointed Bishop of Neiva, and he took canonical possession of that diocese on June 15, 2023. On July 20, 2024, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Tierradentro. His episcopal motto is Tu scis quia amo te.