In a media briefing, on Sunday, January 10, the Archbishop of Morelia, Carlos Garfias Merlos, announced that on January 9 he presented the respective resignation from office in accordance with canon law.
Garfias Merlos told the communication representatives that, in due time, the status of acceptance will be announced and the manner in which Pope Leo XIV accepts the resignation, which would imply the entry into functions of the coadjutor, José Armando Álvarez Cano, who arrived at the archdiocese on March 17.
The Archbishop of Morelia explained that the resignation was sent to the apostolic nunciature and the authorities responsible for the Holy See will process it so that the Pope accepts it, ceasing in his functions to enter the status of emeritus. Likewise, he noted that in previous months the administrative and economic handover of the archdiocese has been made, which, according to the archbishop’s statements, in the archbishop’s safe there would be delivering approximately 20 million pesos equivalent to almost 1.1 million dollars or a little more than 962 thousand euros. In the same way, on December 16 he delivered the archdiocesan pastoral aspects.
Garfias Merlos, according to his birth certificate registered on January 9, 1950, is obligated to present his resignation, being one of the first bishops of Mexico to resign from pastoral government in 2026. They are prelates who will present their resignation, among them, two archbishops: Carlos Garfias Merlos and Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey and five from different dioceses, Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz, bishop of La Paz who has as coadjutor Miguel Ángel Espinoza Garza; Julio César Salcedo Aquino, bishop of Tlaxcala; Rutilio Muñoz Zamora, bishop of Coatzacoalcos; Juan Pedro Juárez Meléndez, bishop of Tula and Sigifredo Noriega Barceló, bishop of Zacatecas.