Coadjutor named for Bishop Zanchetta’s former diocese
April 11, 2026
» Continue to this story on Vatican Press Office
CWN Editor's Note: Pope Leo XIV named Auxiliary Bishop Claudio Pablo Castricone, of Orán, Argentina, as the diocese’s coadjutor bishop. Bishop Castricone will succeed Bishop Luis Scozzina, O.F.M., 74, upon his retirement.
In an unusual move, Pope Francis appointed Castricone as auxiliary bishop of the small diocese in 2023.
From 2013 to 2017, the diocese was governed by Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who had worked closely with the future Pope Francis at the Argentine Episcopal Conference. In August 2017, Pope Francis accepted Bishop Zanchetta’s resignation for “health reasons”; four months later, the Pope appointed him assessor of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which manages the Holy See’s real estate and other assets and investments.
It later emerged that diocesan priests had complained to the Vatican that Bishop Zanchetta had pornographic images of youths on his phone; they also alleged financial mismanagement, abuse of power, and the sexual abuse of seminarians. In 2022, an Argentine court convicted Bishop Zanchetta of sexually abusing two seminarians.
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