On 10 April, Leo XIV appointed Monsignor Claudio Pablo Castricone as coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Orán in Argentina.
Born on 16 April 1958 in Villa Constitución, he was ordained a priest in 1984.
Monsignor Castricone has openly identified with Francis’s destructive programme for decades. The article's photograph shows him meeting Cardinal Bergoglio in Misiones, northern Argentina, in 2007.
Diocese of Orán: Ruined by Homosexual Leadership
The diocese of Orán is famous because it was led by the homosexual Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, another close associate of Francis, from 2013 to 2017.
In 2017, Francis accepted Zanchetta’s resignation for 'health reasons' and soon after appointed him to a Vatican financial role. It later emerged that priests had reported Zanchetta to Rome for possessing pornographic images of young men on his phone. He was also notorious for financial misconduct and abuse of authority. In 2022, he was convicted by an Argentine court of homosexually abusing two seminarians.
Following Zanchetta's departure from Orán, Francis appointed Archbishop Andrés Stanovnik of Corrientes as apostolic administrator. This was an unusual choice, given that the two dioceses are 900 km apart, that reflected close personal ties.
In 2018, Monsignor Luis Antonio Scozzina was appointed bishop of Orán. At the time, he was leading an institute at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, whose president — now Cardinal Tucho Fernández — was appointed by the future Pope Francis in 2009.
Interested in outcasts and "the different"
In 2013, Monsignor Castricone told Rosario3 that he 'totally identified' with Francis's call for 'a poor Church for the poor'. He added that Francis would govern in a more collegial than vertical way.
In 2023, Francis appointed Monsignor Castricone as auxiliary bishop of Orán. In the homily at the episcopal ordination, Bishop Scozzina spoke of the need for a synodal Church that accepted marginalised and "the different".
As an auxiliary bishop, Monsignor Castricone wanted to work in slum and prison ministry and with addicted people.
When he met Francis in 2023, he recorded greetings for Orán. Photos of Castricone with Francis can be seen below.
No Going Back Behind Francis
After Francis's death, in April 2025, Monsignor Castricone told Radio Rosario that he held on to "the joy this Pope brought".
"We already knew what Bergoglio was doing in Buenos Aires and believed he would replicate it in the universal Church."
He added: "On the issue of a synodal Church, I think there is no going back."
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