(The Pillar. EDGAR BELTRÁN).
On May 27, 2024, the Archbishop Gabriel Mestre of La Plata, Argentina, made public his resignation as archbishop, which came after just 10 months in office. The resignation was quite surprising, considering that Mestre is only 55 years old and enjoyed the apparent trust of Pope Francis. He had also governed previously the Diocese of Mar del Plata for 6 years, in what seemed a successful term. But in the letter announcing his resignation, Mestre said it had come at the pope’s request. The archbishop explained that Francis had summoned him to Rome to “dialogue about some aspects of the Diocese of Mar del Plata after my transfer to the Archdiocese of La Plata upon being appointed metropolitan archbishop.” “After confronting some different perceptions of what happened in the Diocese of Mar del Plata from November 2023 to the present, Pope Francis asked me to resign from the See of La Plata,” he said. But according to local sources, Mestre’s resignation as La Plata’s archbishop is connected to a complicated succession fight in the Diocese of Mar del Plata.
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