Leo XIV Promotes Argentinian Bishop Continuing the "Bergoglian Line"
This appointment continues the disastrous trend of Argentine episcopal appointments of the Francis' era.
The Diocese of Santa Rosa covers the province of La Pampa and is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Bahía Blanca. It comprises around 25 parishes, 180,000 Catholics and 30 priests.
Biography and pastoral path
Luis Darío Martín was born on 4 March 1961 in General Pico, within the Diocese of Santa Rosa. However, he left this his conservative native diocese to get his priestly formation at the Buenos Aires Seminary. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires on 17 March 1990.
Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires advanced his career.
In Santa Rosa, Bishop Reinaldo Fidel Brédice (+2018) preserved the Catholic faith and discipline throughout his episcopate from 1992 to 2008. When he retired, seven seminarians were studying in the excellent seminary of the neighboring diocese San Luis (no Communion grabbed by hand).
How to Destroy a Diocese: Bishop, Auxiliary Bishop and Seminary
In 2008, Benedict XVI appointed now Cardinal Mario Poli (78) as bishop of the Diocese of Santa Rosa. Poli was further advanced by Francis in April 2013 as his own successor in Buenos Aires.
The seminarians from Santa Rosa were removed from San Luis and transferred to liberal insitutes. The last priests trained in San Luis were ordained in 2011.
The main destruction of Santa Rosa happened after Cardinal Bergoglio became Pope. In September 2013, he appointed Mons. Raúl Martín as Bishop of Santa Rosa. He had previously been auxiliary bishop of Cardinal Bergoglio in Buenos Aires.
Since then, there have been only three ordinations, and today only two seminarians remain.
On 20 March 2019, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Luis Darío Martín as Auxiliary Bishop of Santa Rosa.
Developments of Same Line
In October 2020, InfoHuella.com.ar commented on the introduction of the “Bergoglian line” into Santa Rosa:
“In recent times, the pope has insisted on ‘synodality,’ a model of a Church that goes out toward geographical and existential peripheries and is not self-referential. A kind of ‘parliamentary’ or ‘democratic’ Church that teaches its doctrine in this way.
In recent years in La Pampa, several developments have followed this same line: the appointment of auxiliary bishop Luis Darío Martín, born in General Pico; the change in the seminary for the formation of new priests, which moved from the orthodox seminary in San Luis to the more open one in Río Cuarto.“
In short: Francis' auxiliary bishop is now continuing as Leo XIV' Bishop in Santa Rosa.
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