Monsignor Domenico Berni, bishop prelate emeritus of Chuquibambilla, in the southern Andes of Peru, and personal friend of Leo XIV, died on Sunday, November 8 in Genoa, at the age of 86. An Augustinian religious, he arrived in Peru in 1971 and served there for 47 years, first as a parish priest and later as a bishop, in the Apurímac region. His death comes three days before the Pope arrives in Peru, the country where both coincided for decades as missionaries of the same order.
Berni was born on May 26, 1940 in Piane di Carniglia, in the Italian municipality of Bedonia, and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1966. Three years before his arrival, Paul VI had erected the prelate of Chuquibambilla and entrusted it to the Italian Augustinians. For fifteen years he was parish priest of Antabamba, also attending to Grau and Cotabambas, and promoted projects with Caritas, including a seed and vegetable distribution program, with the participation of many women, to improve children’s nutrition. John Paul II appointed him bishop prelate of Chuquibambilla on March 29, 1989. He requested to receive his episcopal ordination in the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro in Pavia, where the relics of Saint Augustine are kept. Francis accepted his resignation on April 24, 2018, when he was about to turn 78, and then returned to Italy.
His friendship with Robert Prevost was born in the Peruvian mission. According to Vatican News, they met at least twice a year at the order’s meetings, and Prevost, as prior general of the Augustinians, visited the Andean communities on several occasions. In 2018, already bishop of Chiclayo, he traveled more than a thousand kilometers to bid farewell to Berni at the end of his ministry. As prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, he visited him in Liguria, and Berni returned the visit when he was created cardinal. In November 2025, the emeritus bishop was received by Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace.
From his life in the Andes, he left a phrase collected by Vatican News: «One can live happily in simplicity, seeing people and children smile, even if they have nothing». Last June 29 he had celebrated his sixty years of priesthood.
The Peruvian Episcopal Conference expressed its sorrow on its social networks and gave thanks to God for «the 47 years of missionary dedication» of Berni in the country, especially in Apurímac. The current prelate of Chuquibambilla, Monsignor Wilder Alberto Vásquez Saldaña, called the faithful to a Mass for his soul in the cathedral of the Lord of the Exaltation, according to ACI Prensa. There is no public message from the Pope so far.
Berni is the third bishop linked to the Peruvian Church to die in ten days, on the eve of the Pope’s trip. On October 30, the archbishop of Cusco, Richard Alarcón Urrutia, died at the age of 74, after a long illness, and on November 1, the bishop of Puno, Jorge Carrión Pavlich, at the age of 76. Leo XIV will visit Peru from November 11 to 16, with planned stops in Chiclayo, the diocese he governed, and in Cusco.
The Pope returns to Peru without one of the friends with whom he shared the Augustinian mission in the Andes.
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