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 'pref ...

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 va ...

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 In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of Tucumán following the retirement of Archbishop

Luis Héctor Villalba Luis Héctor Villalba (; born 11 October 1934) is an Argentine prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who was the Archbishop of Tucumán from 1999 to 2011. He was an auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires from 1984 to 1991 and bishop of San Martin from ...

. Zecca received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained clergy member 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 of dioceses. The role or offic ...

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

. Serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

were Estanislao Esteban Cardinal Karlic, Archbishop Emeritus of Paraná, Eduardo Vicente Mirás, Archbishop Emeritus of

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

, Archbishop Emeritus of Tucumán, and

Ariel Edgardo Torrado Mosconi Ariel Edgardo Torrado Mosconi (January 18, 1961) is a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has served as Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago del Estero since his appointment by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on November 22, 2008. On Tuesday December, ...

, Auxiliary Bishop of

Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero (, Spanish for ''Saint-James-Upon-The-Lagoon'') is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 252,192 inhabitants, () making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a surf ...

. 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 Bolsena is a town and ''comune'' of Italy, in the province of Viterbo in northern Lazio on the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. It is 10 km (6 mi) north-north west of Montefiascone and 36 km (22 mi) north-west of Viterbo. The an ...

. Rather than allowing him to become Archbishop Emeritus, as is normal in cases of retirement, he was assigned the titular see of

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