José Luis Mollaghan (2 May 1946 – 7 June 2025) was an Argentinian

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the Roman Catholic Church. From 2014 he was an official of the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is a department of the Roman Curia in charge of the religious discipline of the Catholic Church. The Dicastery is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of t ...

. He had previously held positions in Argentina, including

Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and Archbishop of

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

Biography

Mollaghan was born in

, Argentina. After the seminary he studied philosophy and theology at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. In 1967 he obtained his licentiate in theology and a degree in canon law at the

Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private university, private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyo ...

in Rome. There he was ordained a priest by Bishop Jacques-Paul Martin on 19 March 1971. He then fulfilled pastoral assignments in Buenos Aires for several years and in 1975 began teaching law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. On 22 July 1993,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires with the titular see of Theuzi. He was consecrated a bishop on 2 October by Cardinal Antonio Quarracino. He held several posts in the administration of the archdiocese including vicar for the administration and moderator of the curia. He served on several committees of the

Argentine Episcopal Conference The Argentine Episcopal Conference () is an episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in Argentina that gathers the bishops of the country in order to discuss pastoral issues and in general all matters that have to do with the Church. The followi ...

, becoming a member of its Executive Committee and Standing Committee and one of its delegates to the Latin American Bishops' Council. From 1994 to 1999 he was secretary general of the Bishops' Conference. Several years of his time as auxiliary in Buenos Aires coincided with the period when the Archbishop of Buenos Aires was Jorge Bergoglio, later

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

. Pope John Paul II named him Bishop of San Miguel on 17 May 2000. On 22 December 2005,

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

appointed him Archbishop of Rosario, where he was installed on 18 March 2006. On 19 May 2014,

assigned Mollaghan to the

in Rome to work on a commission responsible for handling cases of clerical pedophilia. Because the commission had not been established, he moved to Buenos Aires to signify his release from responsibility for the Rosario diocese. He told a congregation at a festive celebration in Rosario in August: "The technical director decides the changes. I just wanted to stay in Rosario, but he sent me to Buenos Aires to make work easy for me." He remained in Argentina, living in Buenos Aires for several months, before moving to Rome. The seven-member Commission was established on 11 November 2014 with responsibility for sexual abuse of minors, heresy, apostasy, misuse of the sacrament of penance, and the ordination of women. Argentine newspapers interpreted Mollaghan's assignment in Rome as an "elegant" way to remove him from Rosario following an investigation into the mismanagement of church funds and referred to Mollaghan as "an old rival" of the pope. Mollaghan denied that he represented a more conservative faction of the Argentine hierarchy and pointed to his long service alongside Bergoglio in Buenos Aires.

Death

Mollaghan died on 7 June 2025, at the age of 79.

References

External links

Archbishop José Luis Mollaghan at Catholic Hierarchy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mollaghan, Jose Luis 1946 births 2025 deaths 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Argentina 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Argentina 20th-century Roman Catholic titular bishops Clergy from Buenos Aires Members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Academic staff of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina Roman Catholic bishops of Buenos Aires Roman Catholic bishops of San Miguel (Argentina) Roman Catholic archbishops of Rosario Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II Bishops appointed by Pope Benedict XVI 20th-century Argentine people 21st-century Argentine people