Archbishop of Asunción

Archdiocese of Asunción Archidioecesis Sanctissimae Assumptionis Archidiócesis de Asunción
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Asunción
Location
Country	Paraguay
Territory	Asunción
Ecclesiastical province	Asunción
Statistics
Area	997 sq mi (2,580 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2015) 1,839,000 1,664,000 (90.5%)
Parishes	76
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	1 July 1547
Cathedral	Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption
Secular priests	81
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop	Edmundo Valenzuela, SDB
Emeritus Bishops	Pastor Cuquejo, C.SS.R. to 6 Nov 2014)
Website
www.arzobispado.org.py

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Asunción (Latin: Archidioecesis Sanctissimae Assumptionis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Paraguay. It was created as the Diocese of Paraguay by Pope Paul III on July 1, 1547, and was elevated to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Pius XI on May 1, 1929, with the suffragan sees of Benjamín Aceval, Caacupé, Carapeguá, Ciudad del Este, Concepción, Coronel Oviedo, Encarnación, San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, San Lorenzo, San Pedro, and Villarrica del Espíritu Santo.

The archdiocese's mother church and thus seat of its archbishop is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. As the only metropolitan in Paraguay, it is the principal episcopal see of that country. As of 2012^[update] the Archbishop of Asunción was Eustaquio Cuquejo Verga, CSSR, having been appointed by Pope John Paul II on June 15, 2002. On Tuesday, November 8, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI, appointed Bishop Edmundo Valenzuela, S.D.B., as Coadjutor Archbishop of the Archdiocese. Until then he had served as Vicar Apostolic of the Apostolic Vicariate of Chaco Paraguayo, with the ecclesiastical rank of Bishop (Vicariates Apostolic are a type of jurisdiction that rank below a diocese). He was born in Villarrica of Espiritu Santo, Paraguay, on November 19, 1944. He was ordained to the priesthood on April 3, 1971, as a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He received a licentiate in theology from the Salesian University in Rome. At one time, he was a missionary in Angola (1991–2006). On February 13, 2006, he was named Titular Bishop of Uzal and appointed Vicar Apostolic of Chaco, Paraguay, receiving episcopal ordination on April 22, 2006. As part of the Episcopal Conference of Paraguay, he serves as Chairman of the Commission for Catholic Education. The archdiocese has 1.58 million Catholics (90.6%) in 2012.