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Pope León XIV appointed Mons. Marcos Pirán Gómez as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Guantánamo-Baracoa this Friday, as reported by the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops at five in the afternoon, Cuba time.
The appointment was formalized through Decree No. 516/2026 from the Dicastery for Bishops and addresses the vacancy left by the passing of Mons. Silvano Pedroso Montalvo, who died on June 13 at the age of 73 due to an oncological illness.
The decree establishes that Pirán Gómez will assume the provisional governance of the diocese "from the aforementioned date until the appointed Bishop takes canonical possession," with all the rights, powers, and duties inherent to diocesan bishops.
Mons. Pirán Gómez is the titular bishop of Boseta and auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Holguín since 2021, when the Pope Francis appointed him to that position. He is of Argentine nationality, born in Buenos Aires on March 7, 1961, and was ordained as a priest on December 9, 1988.
Before his episcopal ordination, he served as the parish priest of San José in Holguín and since 2016 was part of the Diocesan Mission Commission, with pastoral ties in the Maisí area, at the eastern tip of the island, bordering the diocese he now administers.
The Conference of Bishops expressed its gratitude to the new administrator and called on the faithful to support him with their prayers: "While we thank Mons. Pirán Gómez for this new pastoral service he takes on with generosity, we assure him of our prayers and ask everyone to remember Mons. Marcos and the Diocese of Guantánamo-Baracoa in their own prayers at this time."
The diocese that Pirán Gómez will temporarily administer is one of the youngest in Cuba, created on January 24, 1998 by Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to the island.
His predecessor in the position, Mons. Pedroso Montalvo, was the first Afro-descendant bishop in the history of the Catholic Church in Cuba, a milestone that the episcopate highlighted in his obituary.
The COCC described the deceased prelate as a shepherd who lived "his role as a pastor of the people of God without making noise, but with quiet dedication and sacrifice," at the head of a "young, predominantly rural" diocese, with few priests and churches, a scattered population, and a strong presence of evangelical churches.
Pedroso Montalvo had been diagnosed with cancer during a stay in Rome, where he received treatment at the Gemelli Hospital and at the infirmary of the Society of Jesus. He returned to Cuba on June 3 and was transferred to the infirmary of the Daughters of Charity, next to the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, where he was in very critical condition before his passing.
The Cuban episcopate bid him farewell with the words from his obituary: "He loved his diocese and offered his own life for it."
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