Lizardo Estrada Herrera, who on August 13 offered coca leaves to Pachamama at the opening of an ecclesial gathering in Cusco, receives the right of succession over the metropolitan see. Not only has no canonical investigation been opened regarding the controversial events recently revealed, but the former auxiliary bishop is being rewarded with an elevation to archiepiscopal rank.
The Holy See Bulletin published this Saturday, August 29, the appointment of Monsignor Lizardo Estrada Herrera, O.S.A., until now auxiliary bishop of Cusco and secretary general of CELAM, as coadjutor archbishop of that Peruvian archdiocese. The appointment comes sixteen days after Estrada participated in an Andean rite of offering to Pachamama at the inauguration of a meeting presented by Vatican media as preparation for the visit of Leo XIV to Peru.
The events of August 13
On August 13 and 14, the Macrorregional South Meeting “Entrelazando Voces por la Dignidad” was held in Cusco, bringing together representatives of social organizations and indigenous communities from nine regions in southern Peru. As this media outlet documented on August 18, the event opened without a Catholic prayer: a woman led a ceremony invoking Mother Earth, with the distribution of coca leaves among the attendees, breathing exercises, and the placement of the leaves—along with food—into bowls arranged on the ground, according to the Andean ritual of the “pago a la tierra” typical of the month of August, the “month of Pachamama” in the Andean worldview.
The images shared on social media show Monsignor Estrada, who inaugurated the meeting, personally placing his coca leaf in the offering bowl. Immediately afterward, Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and papal commissioner for the case of the Sodalitium of Christian Life, did the same.
The report that Vatican News dedicated to the meeting, which explicitly framed it within the path of preparation for the papal trip, does not mention the opening ceremony or Bertomeu’s presence.
The appointment
The figure of the coadjutor archbishop is regulated in canon 403 §3: he is appointed with the right of succession, so that, upon the vacancy of the see, he automatically succeeds the diocesan bishop (can. 409 §1). Estrada’s appointment therefore designates him as the next metropolitan archbishop of Cusco, a see that Monsignor Richard Alarcón has governed since 2014 and of which Estrada himself has been auxiliary since 2021.
What has not been communicated
To date, no preliminary investigation (can. 1717) has been opened regarding a bishop’s participation in a public act of worship to a non-Christian divinity, a matter that Book VI of the Code includes among offenses against faith and religion (cann. 1364 ff.). Nor is there any statement from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith—one of whose officials participated in the same offering—nor any clarification or correction from the interested party himself.
The only official communication from the Holy See after the events that affects Monsignor Estrada is that of this Saturday: his promotion to archiepiscopal rank with the right of succession.
Who is Lizardo Estrada
Lizardo Estrada Herrera was born on September 23, 1973, in Cotabambas (Apurímac, Peru), within the territory of the Archdiocese of Cusco, and is of Quechua origin. A religious of the Order of Saint Augustine, he made his first vows in 1998, solemn profession in 2001, and was ordained a priest on August 7, 2005, in Chuquibambilla. He studied Philosophy at the Seminary of Our Lady of Cocharcas in Abancay and Theology at the Seminary of Saint Charles and Saint Marcellus in Trujillo, and obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology from the Alphonsian Academy in Rome, as well as doctorates in Education and Pastoral Theology.
In Peru, he served as professor of Moral Theology at the archdiocesan seminary of Cusco, major superior of the Augustinians of the Vicariate of Saint Augustine of Apurímac, prior of the seminary convent Fray Diego Ortiz, and episcopal vicar for Consecrated Life in Trujillo, among other positions. He presided over the Federation of Augustinians of the Vicariates of Peru.
On January 9, 2021, Francis appointed him titular bishop of Ausuccura and auxiliary of Cusco; he received episcopal ordination on February 22 of that year at the hands of Monsignor Alarcón. Since 2023, he has been secretary general of CELAM for the 2023–2027 term. In March of this year, Leo XIV appointed him a member of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development and in April, of the Dicastery for Communication.
Leo XIV will visit Peru soon. Upon his arrival in Cusco, the designated archbishop of the city will be the prelate who inaugurated the meeting on August 13.