Peru loses second bishop in two days as Pope Leo’s visit nears
Bishop Jorge Carrión Pavlich of Puno died at age 76, two days after Archbishop Richard Alarcón of Cusco died. Carrión had led the Diocese of Puno for more than 24 years and marked 50 years as a priest. The deaths come less than two weeks before Pope Leo XIV’s Nov. 11–16 visit to Peru; Puno is not on the papal itinerary. Peru’s bishops’ conference offered condolences and asked for prayers for the deceased bishops and their families.
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Bishop Jorge Carrión Pavlich of Puno died at 76 on Nov. 1, two days after Archbishop Richard Alarcón of Cusco died, as Pope Leo XIV prepared to visit Peru from Nov. 11 to 16. Carrión had led the Diocese of Puno for more than 24 years.
Carrión’s death was announced during Mass at the Shrine of the Virgin of Candelaria in Puno; he had been hospitalized in Lima. Peru’s bishops’ conference offered condolences and asked for prayers for Carrión, his family, and the Catholic community.
Alarcón, 74, died Oct. 30 after battling cancer. He had been helping prepare for the pope’s scheduled stop in Cusco on Nov. 15, and Leo expressed sorrow at his death. Puno is not included in the pope’s itinerary.
Born in Tarma in Peru’s central Andes, Carrión had marked 50 years as a priest and more than 26 years as a bishop. Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop in May 2000; before leading Puno, he served as assistant secretary of the Peruvian bishops’ conference.
A wake began in Lima on Nov. 1, with a vigil scheduled to continue in Puno on Nov. 2. His funeral Mass is set for Nov. 3, followed by burial in Tarma on Nov. 4.
Episcopal succession and pastoral continuity in Catholic ecclesiology
Episcopal succession is the Church’s sacramental and historical continuity with the apostolic mission entrusted by Christ. It is not merely a chain of ordinations or an administrative handover: through bishops, the Church hands on the apostolic faith and continues Christ’s work of teaching, sanctifying, and governing. This continuity is pastoral because episcopal authority exists to serve the unity and growth of the Church, not to stand above it.
Catholic ecclesiology begins with the distinctive place of the apostles. They were called by Christ, witnesses to his Resurrection, and entrusted with proclaiming the Gospel and leading the new people of God. Their mission was not meant to end with their deaths: the work of preaching, governing, reconciling, and sanctifying was to continue through history. The International Theological Commission describes the apostolic foundation as both historical—rooted in Christ’s call and the apostles’ witness—and spiritual, because the risen Christ continues his mission through the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Church’s apostolicity belongs to the whole people of God: all the faithful are called to live and witness to the faith received from the apostles. But the Church also has an ordained ministry that serves and safeguards this common apostolic life. Apostolic succession, in this ministerial sense, is an essential structure of the Church, ordered to the service of all Christians. It connects the Church of each generation with the apostolic foundation rather than replacing that foundation or creating a new Gospel.
The succession is transmitted through episcopal ordination, in a rite that includes the laying on of hands and prayer invoking the Holy Spirit. Catholic teaching understands this not as a human appointment alone, but as a visible and efficacious sign through which the Church asks God to grant the ordained bishop the Spirit and the gifts needed for his ministry. The Church receives this ministry as something given by Christ through the apostles, not as something it may reshape at will.
The succession is therefore more than a record of who ordained whom. Its purpose is to preserve a living connection with the apostolic witness: the faith proclaimed, the sacraments celebrated, and the Church’s mission carried forward. Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that succession is not merely a “material sequence”; it is a historical instrument through which the Spirit makes Christ present to his people. In this understanding, Christ remains the true Shepherd, acting through the apostolic ministry rather than being displaced by it.
The bishop does not simply take the place of one particular apostle as though each apostle had a personal office passed down in a separate line. Rather, bishops succeed to the apostolic ministry in communion with the episcopal college—the body of bishops—whose shared mission continues the apostolic ministry. This helps explain why succession is both local and universal: a bishop shepherds a particular Church, but does so within the communion of the whole Church.
Pastoral continuity means that the Church’s life remains joined to the faith and mission received from the apostles while being lived and proclaimed in changing historical circumstances. The bishop’s responsibility includes guarding the unity of the Church, teaching the faith, and guiding the community’s development. The International Theological Commission calls pastoral authority a responsibility for “the unity of the Church and its development.” The authority is real, but its purpose is service: the New Testament pattern, as the Commission explains it, does not place ministry above the community or separate it from the community.
That service has a doctrinal and sacramental dimension. The bishop is not authorized to replace the apostolic faith with personal theories; the ordained ministry is bound to the word it is entrusted to proclaim. At the same time, the ministry exists within the Church and must learn from the community of believers. This is not a contradiction: pastoral leadership is responsible for fidelity to the faith, while the whole Church receives, lives, and bears witness to that faith.
The connection between succession and the sacraments is especially important. The Church’s ministry of the word and celebration of the sacraments—especially the Eucharist—are means by which Christ continues to communicate salvation. Episcopal succession supports this continuity by ensuring that the Church’s sacramental and teaching life remains connected to the mission entrusted to the apostles.
A bishop’s succession is not understood in isolation. Catholic teaching connects the unity of the Church with the unity of the episcopate: bishops share a common apostolic ministry, and their communion is expressed in their relationship with the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith describes the Roman Pontiff as the visible source and foundation of the unity of the episcopate, and says that apostolic succession perpetuates this unity through the centuries.
This communion is not simply organizational coordination. It expresses the Church’s conviction that local Churches belong to one apostolic Church, sharing the same faith and sacramental life. Benedict XVI, drawing on Irenaeus, presents the succession of bishops in communion with Rome as a sign and guarantee of the continued transmission of the common apostolic faith.
Apostolic succession concerns the continuity of the Church’s ministry and faith; it does not mean that every bishop is personally holy, wise, or free from error in every judgment. The early tradition cited by Benedict XVI recognized that bishops might “fall away,” even while treating episcopal succession as a means of preserving the apostolic witness. The point is not that office makes its holder morally flawless, but that the Church’s ministry is entrusted to real human beings within a continuing sacramental and ecclesial structure.
Nor is succession sufficient if understood as a bare chain detached from fidelity to the apostolic faith. The Church’s teaching authority is bound by the word of the Lord and by the apostolic rule of faith. The succession serves the transmission of that faith; it is not permission to teach whatever a minister chooses. Likewise, the succession does not diminish Christ’s direct action in the faithful: the International Theological Commission explicitly says that recognizing the apostolic ministry does not underestimate Christ’s and the Spirit’s immediate influence on each believer.
The early historical evidence suggests development in the way local leadership was organized. The International Theological Commission notes that, by the end of the first century, apostles, their close collaborators, or their successors directed local groups of bishops and presbyters; by the beginning of the second century, the figure of a single bishop leading a local community appears clearly in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. The Commission also acknowledges that the surviving documents do not allow every stage of this transition to be reconstructed precisely.
That historical development does not mean, in Catholic understanding, that the apostolic mission was invented later. Rather, the Church came to recognize and clarify the form in which the apostolic ministry would be handed on. The enduring purpose is the same: to keep the Church in communion with Christ through the apostolic witness, and to sustain its unity, teaching, and sacramental life across generations. As Benedict XVI put it, the ministry of bishops exists so that “this chain of communion be not broken.”