Alfredo Horacio Zecca (27 September 1949 – 4 November 2022) was an Argentine

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He served as archbishop of Tucumán from 2011 to 2017, when he resigned for health reasons.

Life

Zecca was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, and

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

to the priesthood on 19 November 1976. Zecca was named a consultor to the

Congregation for Catholic Education , type = Congregation , seal = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , seal_size = 100px , seal_caption = Coat of arms of the Holy See , logo = , picture =Via della Conciliazione din Roma1.jpg , picture_caption = Palazzo delle Congregazioni in Piazza ...

on 29 January 2005, and a member of that Congregation on 12 June 2012. On 10 June 2011, he was appointed Archbishop of Tucumán following the retirement of Archbishop Luis Héctor Villalba. Zecca received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

on 11 August from Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio (later Pope Francis), Archbishop of

. Serving as co-consecrators were Estanislao Esteban Cardinal Karlic, Archbishop Emeritus of Paraná, Eduardo Vicente Mirás, Archbishop Emeritus of Rosario, Luis Héctor Villalba, Archbishop Emeritus of Tucumán, and Ariel Edgardo Torrado Mosconi, Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago del Estero. He was installed in Tucumán on 17 September 2011. Zecca met with Pope Francis in February 2017 and submitted his resignation on 19 March. Pope Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop for health reasons on 9 June 2017, when Zecca was 67, assigning him the titular see of Bolsena. Rather than allowing him to become Archbishop Emeritus, as is normal in cases of retirement, he was assigned the titular see of Bolsena and remained an active bishop. According to some reports, Pope Francis removed Zecca, not for health reasons but because he had accepted the government authorities' ruling of suicide in the case of a priest who had been a longtime campaigner against drug traffickers was found hanged on 5 October 2016. Zecca died from heart failure on 4 November 2022, at the age of 73.

References

External links

Alfredo Horacio Zecca at Catholic Hierarchy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zecca, Alfredo 1949 births 2022 deaths 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Argentina Clergy from Buenos Aires Roman Catholic archbishops of Tucumán Bishops appointed by Pope Benedict XVI