Days before Pope’s visit, 2 Peruvian bishops pass away
Archbishop Richard Daniel Alarcón Urrutia of Cusco and Bishop Jorge Pedro Carrión Pavlich of Puno died as Peru prepared for Pope Leo XIV’s visit. Pope Leo had worked with both prelates in Peru’s bishops’ conference; he sent condolences to Alarcón Urrutia’s family and diocesan community. Alarcón Urrutia died after a long illness. Coadjutor Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera automatically succeeded him as Archbishop of Cusco. Carrión Pavlich died in a Lima hospital after receiving care for an illness for more than 12 weeks.
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Two Peruvian bishops who had worked with Pope Leo XIV in the country’s bishops’ conference died shortly before his planned visit to Peru. Archbishop Richard Daniel Alarcón Urrutia of Cusco died on October 30, and Bishop Jorge Pedro Carrión Pavlich of Puno died the following night; Cusco is on the papal itinerary, while Puno is not. 1
Alarcón Urrutia was born in Lima in 1952, ordained a priest in 1976, and appointed a bishop in 2001. He became Archbishop of Cusco in 2015 and died after a long illness. Pope Leo sent condolences to his family and diocesan community, describing him as a “selfless pastor.” 1
The archbishop was the principal consecrator at the 2021 episcopal ordination of Lizardo Estrada Herrera, with then-Bishop Robert Prevost—now Pope Leo XIV—serving as a co-consecrator. Estrada Herrera had been named coadjutor archbishop in August 2026 and therefore succeeded Alarcón Urrutia automatically upon his death. 1
Carrión Pavlich died in a Lima hospital on the night of October 31, after receiving treatment for an illness for more than 12 weeks. Born in Tarma in 1950, he was ordained a priest in 1976, became apostolic administrator of Puno in 1998, and was consecrated bishop for the diocese in 2000. 1
As bishop, Carrión Pavlich reportedly focused on evangelizing Indigenous communities whose members speak Quechua and Aymara. 1
The article reports that the bishops’ deaths are not expected to affect the schedule of Leo XIV’s visit. It suggests the Pope may remember Alarcón Urrutia during his planned stop in Cusco. 1
Episcopal succession sustains pastoral continuity amid loss
The deaths of bishops are a genuine loss for the people and local churches they served, but they do not end the Church’s pastoral mission. In Catholic understanding, episcopal succession is the way Christ’s apostolic ministry is handed on through history: it safeguards continuity in the Church’s faith, sacramental life, and communion. That continuity is larger than any one bishop, even as each bishop’s personal service matters deeply.
The apostles’ mission was intended to endure beyond their lifetimes. The Church teaches that they appointed successors so the Gospel could remain whole and alive across generations; episcopal ordination, through the laying on of hands, transmits the ministry entrusted to the apostles.
So “succession” does not mean simply that one person takes over another person’s role. A bishop is connected to the apostolic community and to the wider college of bishops, rather than being the individual successor of one particular apostle. The point is the continued service of the Gospel: bishops are charged to teach, shepherd, and sanctify the people, handing on what they themselves received.
A bishop’s death can be felt intensely because his ministry is personal and local. He is a pastor to a particular church and a visible sign of its unity. At the same time, that local church belongs to the universal Church, and the bishop’s ministry is bound to communion with the other bishops and the Pope.
This helps make sense of how the Church holds together grief and confidence. The bishop who dies cannot simply be replaced as a person: his relationships, judgment, and particular history of service are his own. But the ministry he received is not his private possession. Episcopal succession serves the Church by preserving the apostolic faith and pastoral mission beyond the lifetime of any one shepherd.
Pope John Paul II expresses the pastoral assurance at the heart of this belief:
The Good Shepherd does not abandon his flock but preserves and protects it always through those who, by their ontological share in his life and mission, carry out in an eminent and visible way the role of teacher, shepherd and priest.
The confidence here is not that the Church will never experience loss or disruption. It is that Christ remains the true Shepherd, and that the ministry he entrusted to the apostles continues in the Church.
Catholic teaching describes apostolic succession as more than a historical chain of officeholders. Through episcopal consecration, the Church understands the apostolic ministry to be handed on sacramentally, with the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands. Pope Benedict XVI describes the bishop’s role as maintaining a living connection between the Church’s present life and the apostolic witness. The bishop is bound to the Word he serves; he is not free to invent the faith entrusted to him.
That succession also has a communal dimension. Each bishop serves a particular church, while all bishops together share responsibility for the whole Church and act in communion with the successor of Peter. Thus, when a local church loses its bishop, its continuity does not rest on that local community alone. It belongs within the broader communion of the Church.
Episcopal succession does not mean that a diocese will never face a period of uncertainty, or that the death of a beloved bishop is unimportant. Nor does the teaching make every bishop personally immune from error or weakness. It concerns the Church’s enduring apostolic ministry and its responsibility to preserve and hand on the faith.
The material available here does not explain the specific canonical arrangements or timeline for governing a diocese after a bishop’s death, so those details should not be inferred from the theological principle alone. But the principle does clarify the larger meaning of succession: pastoral continuity is ultimately sustained not by one individual’s longevity, but by Christ’s continuing care for the Church through an apostolic ministry received, shared, and handed on.