The Roman Catholic Diocese of Comodoro is located in the city of Comodoro, in the Patagonian province of Chubut in southern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Diocese

The

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

Comodoro Rivadavia Comodoro Rivadavia (), often shortened to Comodoro ( ), is a city in the Patagonian Provinces of Argentina, province of Chubut Province, Chubut in southern Argentina, located on the San Jorge Gulf, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, at the foot of th ...

encompasses 234,000 km² (90,382 square miles) of central

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

covering the Province of Chubut. The Diocese was founded in 1957 from part of the Diocese of Viedma. In 1961, its southern half became the separate Diocese of

Río Gallegos Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

. In 2009, part of the diocese became the Territorial Prelature of Esquel. It is a suffragan see to the Archdiocese of Bahía Blanca. The

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

is located in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia. It is dedicated to San Juan Bosco, the only cathedral in the world dedicated to the founder of the

Salesian The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

Order. It was inaugurated in 1979, although the

crypt A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...

had been dedicated in 1949. In 2024 the

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

, bishop Roberto Álvarez, described the religious landscape of Patagonia as mission territory. "The Patagonian Church is special, and very different from the rest of Argentina. For example, we are a land of evangelisation, a mission country. This region does not have deep Christian roots".

Bishops

Ordinaries

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Comodoro Rivadavia is a

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 ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. * Carlos Mariano Pérez Eslava S.D.B.(13 March 1957 – 26 December 1963, appointed Archbishop of Salta) * Eugenio Santiago Peyrou S.D.B. (24 June 1964 – 19 February 1974) * Argimiro Daniel Moure Piñeiro S.D.B. (5 April 1975 – 8 September 1992) * Pedro Luis Ronchino S.D.B. (30 January 1993 – 19 February 2005) * Virginio Domingo Bressanelli S.C.I. (19 February 2005 – 10 February 2010); appointed Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Neuquen * Joaquin Gimeno Lahoz (15 July 2010 – present); formerly Vicar General of the diocese

Auxiliary bishops

* Mario Picchi, S.D.B. (1970-1975), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of La Plata * Fernando Martín Croxatto (2014-2017), appointed Bishop of Neuquén * Roberto Pío Álvarez (2017- *Alejandro Pablo Benna (2017-

References

External links