The news was announced by the Chancery of the Archdiocese of La Plata. The statement is signed by the archbishop, Mons. Gustavo Carrara, his auxiliary bishops, Mons. Alberto Bochatey, O.S.A., Mons. Jorge González and Mons. Federico Wechsung, and the rest of the clergy of La Plata. The text opens with the words of Christ in the Gospel of Saint John, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” It announces the death “with deep sorrow, but with hope placed in the Risen Christ” and gives thanks to God “for the gift of his life and for the years of fruitful episcopal ministry among us.”
The archdiocese invites the faithful to pray for his eternal rest. It asks them to implore, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, receive him “into the heavenly liturgy.” The communiqué includes the Church’s prayer for a deceased bishop, asking that he share eternal glory with the successors of the apostles.
The wake will be held in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of La Plata. It will be open on Thursday, November 12, from 10:00 a.m. to midnight, and on Friday the 13th, from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. At that hour, Mons. Carrara will preside over the funeral Mass. Afterward, the mortal remains will be transferred to the Clergy Pantheon at the Municipal Cemetery of La Plata.
A death during the Pope’s visit
Aguer dies while Leo XIV is in Argentina. It is the first trip of a Pontiff to the country since the visits of Saint John Paul II in 1982 and 1987. In the interview with AdVaticanum that InfoVaticana published yesterday, the archbishop acknowledged that his delicate state of health would prevent him from meeting the Pope. He said he was offering his sufferings for the Church. He also recalled that Leo XIV is a son of Saint Augustine, whom he had admired all his life, and prayed: “May the Lord strengthen the Pope so that he may calm the waters in the Church.”
Read more: Archbishop Aguer calls for the repeal of Traditionis custodes during Leo XIV’s visit to Argentina
A voice in favor of the Traditional Mass
In that same conversation, Aguer denounced that the Traditional Mass suffers in Argentina “all kinds of disdain and restrictions.” As a solution, he proposed returning to Summorum Pontificum and “repealing Traditionis custodes.” This was not a new stance. In 2021 he described Francis’s restrictions as a “lamentable setback” and warned that many bishops were not traditionis custodes, but rather traditionis ignari, obliviosi and even evertores. A year later he wrote that the Pope “is not the master of the liturgy,” but its servant and custodian. In July of this year he maintained that the motu proprio, “far from healing wounds, only deepened them.” His defense had particular value: he himself admitted that he had never celebrated the ancient Mass. His position arose from conviction, not from habit.
Nearly two decades at the head of La Plata
Aguer was born on May 24, 1943. He was ordained a priest on November 25, 1972 by Juan Carlos Aramburu, then coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires. Saint John Paul II appointed him titular bishop of Lamdia and auxiliary of Buenos Aires on February 26, 1992. He received episcopal consecration on April 4 of that year at the hands of Cardinal Antonio Quarracino. In 1998 he was promoted to coadjutor archbishop of La Plata, and on June 12, 2000 he assumed the role of seventh archbishop of the see. Francis accepted his resignation due to age limit on June 2, 2018. As his greatest work he highlighted the ordination of 49 priests.
A graduate in Theology from the Catholic University of Argentina, he was an honorary academician of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and a full member of the National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. He was also grand prior for Argentina of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and conventual chaplain ad honorem of the Order of Malta. According to Perfil, in recent years he resided at the Priestly Home of Buenos Aires.
Requiescat in pace.
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“Do not resign yourselves”: Leo XIV encourages Christian families in Buenos Aires