According to the daily bulletin of the Holy See Press Office on March 5, 2026, Pope Leo XIV received in audience Monsignor Pedro Daniel Martínez Perea, emeritus bishop of San Luis, Argentina. The information gathered by the ANSA agency recalled that the bishop «has not held any pastoral position since 2020» following his «early» resignation.
Martínez Perea is currently 70 years old and was in charge of his diocese until he was removed from office at 64 years old, an age considerably lower than the usual for episcopal resignation.
The controversy over chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia
The name of the Argentine bishop gained notoriety in 2017, when he published the pastoral letter titled “Marriage, new unions and Eucharist in chapter 8 of Amoris laetitia”.
In that document, Martínez Perea addressed the interpretations that were being spread in various places—especially in Argentina—about Francis’s apostolic exhortation. The prelate insisted that the text should be read in continuity with the Church’s previous doctrine, relying on Revelation and the Magisterium as the interpretive framework.
In his letter, the bishop highlighted that a coherent reading of the pontifical document did not allow concluding that sacramental discipline had changed. Specifically, he wrote that “the Apostolic Exhortation never states that it is morally licit for them to live more uxorio (…) and that they can receive Holy Communion while remaining in that state of life”.
For this reason, the Argentine prelate reiterated the Church’s traditional doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage and recalled that the faithful who live in a new civil union while a previous marital bond remains valid could only access Communion in very specific circumstances provided by ecclesial discipline.
In the same pastoral text, he also warned against two extremes in pastoral practice: on one hand, the temptation to offer “a pseudo-pastoral solution without truth” to avoid conflicts, and on the other, a merely rigorist attitude that does not accompany the faithful in difficult situations.
The letter, signed on June 29, 2017, quickly became one of the clearest episcopal positions in defense of the traditional interpretation of marriage and sacramental discipline following the publication of Amoris Laetitia.
Apostolic visitation and early resignation
The bishop’s situation took a turn in December 2019, when the Holy See sent an apostolic visitation to the diocese of San Luis, a procedure used to examine the pastoral situation of a diocese. A few months later, in March 2020, Martínez Perea was summoned to Rome. There he was asked to submit his resignation from the pastoral government of the diocese.
Read also: The strange resignation of the bishop of San Luis
The Holy See officially announced the acceptance of his resignation on June 9, 2020. Since then, the Argentine bishop has remained without public pastoral responsibilities.
A meeting that arouses attention
The audience now granted by Leo XIV draws attention because it represents the first significant public gesture from the Vatican toward the prelate since his departure from the diocese.
For the moment, the Holy See has not offered details about the content of the meeting or possible future assignments for the emeritus bishop of San Luis. The news, as is common, is limited to the mention of the audience in the Vatican’s official bulletin.