JULI (PERU)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
September 29, 2025
By Edgar Beltrán
How the pope deals with the new vacancy could be a signal of the direction he plans to take.
Pope Leo accepted last week the resignation of a scandal-hit Peruvian bishop, in what could be a signal of the pope’s priorities for the country where he spent almost three decades in ministry.
Bishop Ciro Quispe López resigned as bishop of the Territorial Prelature of Juli at just 51 years old, after a year-long Vatican investigation into allegations of sexual and financial misconduct.
Quispe had led the prelature in southern Peru since 2018.
In July 2024, several Peruvian outlets reported allegations that Quispe had sexual relationships with more than six women, that he misused diocesan funds, and took furniture from diocesan properties to furnish a barbecue restaurant he owns in the city of Cuzco.
The allegations originated with the bishop’s housekeeper, who told local outlet Sin Fronteras that she had found evidence of the sexual affairs. The publication said it had accessed pictures, WhatsApp messages, and videos that corroborated the accusations.
Quispe vigorously denied the claims, calling them a defamation campaign brought by “dark hands.”
After the reports surfaced, the Holy See announced an apostolic visitation led by Bishop Marco Antonio Cortez of Tacna and Moquegua, the results of which have never been made public.
The visitation and Quispe’s resignation took longer than many expected. That could be due to the hospitalization and death of Pope Francis this year, and the fact that Pope Leo’s pontificate started close to the Roman summer, during which the Holy See usually slows major decisions.
But several sources in Lima told The Pillar that embattled Cardinal Carlos Castillo of Lima emerged as one of Quispe’s most ardent defenders during the visitation, which may have also contributed to the delay.
If Pope Leo accepted Quispe’s resignation against the arguments of Castillo, it could be an indication of things to come for Castillo, whose own archdiocese has been dealing with its own scandals in recent months.
And if Castillo himself ends up being replaced, Leo’s choice of his replacement could say a lot about the new pope’s priorities.
After The Pillar last month revealed multiple allegations of financial misconduct and abuse cover-up in the Archdiocese of Lima, the Vatican ordered an investigation into the archdiocese, though it was not formally called an apostolic visitation.
It is possible that the results of the investigation could contribute to Castillo being replaced in Lima.
Leo and Castillo were not known to have a warm relationship during the years they overlapped in Peru. Then-Bishop Robert Prevost voted against Castillo for president of the bishops’ conference, and Castillo openly criticized Prevost more than once in conference meetings.
Castillo turned 75 in February and tendered his resignation to the then-seriously ill Pope Francis. He has since repeatedly claimed that the pope – without specifying if he meant Francis or Leo – told him he would remain in his post until his 80th birthday.
However, various sources close to the Archdiocese of Lima and the nunciature in Peru told The Pillar that some in the nunciature and Rome have floated the idea of the pope accepting Castillo’s resignation after the Roman summer and appointing 76-year-old Archbishop Salvador Piñero of Ayacucho as apostolic administrator.
According to those sources, Pope Leo decided against that plan and instead asked the nuncio to begin searching for other suitable candidates to replace Castillo, aiming to appoint a new archbishop of Lima by late 2025 or early 2026.
Two main names being touted for the position are Bishop Luis Alberto Barrera of El Callao and Bishop Juan Carlos Vera of the Military Ordinariate of Peru.
Both bishops share similar profiles: they avoid public theological and political controversy, are difficult to pin down ideologically, and are regarded as men of dialogue.
Barrera was long considered the frontrunner for the position because of his personal relationship with the pope. But sources now say Vera is the favorite, as Barrera faces unresolved management problems in El Callao that could make his appointment in Lima difficult, especially given the criticisms of rampant financial and administrative mismanagement in the archdiocese under Castillo.
According to various sources in the Archdiocese of Lima, Vera has already been contacted by the apostolic nunciature to discuss the potential appointment.
Vera is widely perceived as a compromise choice. He doesn’t have a history of overtly progressive or conservative theological sympathies, and he’s not a firebrand with a knack for bringing controversy upon himself, as Castillo is generally perceived to be.
However, senior sources in the Peruvian bishops’ conference have said that Vera is not well-liked within the Peruvian Armed Forces.
“He’s widely perceived as weak and lacking in character. But at this point, anyone would be an improvement over Castillo,” one source said.
Though Vera had largely avoided controversy since becoming military bishop in 2014, in September he defended an amnesty law for armed forces and law enforcement officers who fought terrorism in the country between 1980 and 2000.
A group of 10 Peruvian bishops, led by Castillo, had published a letter criticizing the law earlier that month.
There are a number of other current vacancies in Peru. One that could have significant implications is the Archdiocese of Piura, whose former head, Archbishop José Antonio Eguren, resigned in April 2024 amid allegations of scandal surrounding the now-dissolved Sodalitium Christinae Vitae.
The current apostolic administrator and auxiliary bishop of Lima, Bishop Guillermo Elías, was widely considered to be Eguren’s most likely successor in Piura.
Elías is considered to be one of Castillo’s men, who pushed for him to become an auxiliary bishop in 2019.
However, according to sources close to the nunciature in Lima, there is a new frontrunner for the position: Bishop Marco Antonio Cortez of Tacna and Moquegua, who served as apostolic visitor to the Prelature of Juli after the scandals surrounding Bishop Quispe.
If Cortez is indeed appointed to head the Archdiocese of Piura, this would signal a radical change of course.
Elías, as a Castillo protege, is considered to harbor progressive sympathies and would signal continuity with the kind of episcopal appointment that became increasingly common during Francis’ pontificate in Peru.
In contrast, Cortez is a member of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which is intimately connected with Opus Dei and widely considered to be of a more theologically conservative sensibility.
Moreover, Cortez was ordained in Chiclayo in 1985, where a significant number of diocesan priests belong to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, including some of the pope’s closest collaborators during his time as a bishop in Chiclayo.
In the early 2000s, many priests of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross were appointed bishops across the country. But after Pope Francis’ 2013 election, such appointments largely ended, as the pope favored bishops close to the Jesuits and with more progressive sympathies, like Castillo himself.
If Cortez is appointed as Archbishop of Piura, it could signal the start of a Leonine reshaping of the Peruvian episcopate.
As with much in this new pontificate, Peru is waiting for the first major move that could signal the direction Pope Leo plans to take.
The forced resignation of the bishop of Juli may have been the first of those moves.