According to what we have learned at InfoVaticana, the announcement made by the Archdiocese of Madrid scheduled for 12:30 will include the appointments of auxiliary bishops Fernando Murga Gómez and Andrés Martínez Esteban. With the new bishops, Madrid once again has four auxiliaries, who join Vicente Martín Muñoz and Juan Antonio Martínez Camino. The team had been reduced following the departure of Jesús Vidal to Segovia and, above all, after the sudden death of José Antonio Álvarez Sánchez on October 1, 2025, at the age of 50.
A man of the Curia and a historian
Fernando Murga Gómez belongs to the circle of the cardinal Cobo’s closest collaborators in diocesan governance. He served as parish priest of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad and San León Magno, and in February 2025, as part of the reorganization of the central structure of the archdiocese, he assumed the position of moderator of the Curia, which he carried out alongside the then vicar general, José Antonio Álvarez. He combines this task with that of formator and administrator of the Conciliar Seminary in its formative stage.
Andrés Martínez Esteban, born in 1971 and ordained a priest for Madrid in 1997, presents a markedly academic profile. He holds a doctorate in Church History from the Gregorian University and in Theology from San Dámaso, with training in archival science and paleography at Vatican institutions. He has directed the Diocesan Archive of Madrid, taught at San Dámaso, coordinated the permanent formation of the clergy, and served as spiritual director of the Military Seminary. Since 2016 he has attended to Eastern-rite faithful as episcopal vicar, and since January 2025 he has been vicar general of the Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Spain.
The keys to the appointment
The appointment closes a process that has taken longer than expected. According to Religión Confidencial, Cobo conveyed to Leo XIV during his visit to Madrid the urgency of filling the vacancies, and at the archdiocese it was assumed that the names would be announced in September. The same outlet then pointed to the search for a bishop to run the machinery of the Curia and another with an intellectual profile, two roles that fit the chosen candidates. Expectations spoke of at least three auxiliaries; in the end there have been two.
Martínez Esteban figured in those speculations as a name that would be received as representative of the less progressive sector of the Madrid clergy. His time leading the Eastern-rite faithful has not been without tensions: in July, more than 500 Ukrainian Greek-Catholic faithful asked the Vatican to investigate what they described as the “disintegration” of their community, following their move from the parish of Buen Suceso to a pastoral center in Vallecas.
The appointments also have an institutional reading. Each auxiliary adds a vote in the Plenary Assembly of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, and Cobo’s team could soon change again: Martínez Camino, born in 1953, is approaching the age of resignation, and several outlets consider it likely that Vicente Martín will be called to head a diocese.