Peruvian bishop resigns after investigation for sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement

Bishop Ciro Quispe López, bishop emeritus of Juli, Peru. / Credit: Archdiocese of Cusco

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 25, 2025 / 16:18 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Bishop Ciro Quispe López of Juli, Peru, following a Vatican investigation initiated in mid-2024 into several accusations against him of sexual misconduct with women and financial mismanagement.

“The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the Territorial Prelature of Juli [Peru], presented by Bishop Ciro Quispe López,” the Vatican Press Office reported Sept. 24 without providing further details.

Quispe and the Prelature of Juli did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In statements to the American media outlet Crux in 2024, the bishop said malevolent forces were behind the accusations against him. In response to a query from a local newspaper, he said “all these things, brother, are under investigation” and “we are currently in that process,” without specifying whether he was referring to civil or Church jurisdiction.

In July 2024, the apostolic nunciature in Peru reported that the Vatican had appointed Bishop Marco Antonio Cortez of Tacna and Moquegua as apostolic visitor (investigator) following “the publication of news in various local media outlets regarding the Prelature of Juli.” The results of the investigation have not been made public.

The Prelature of Juli was established in 1957. Its seat is in the city of the same name in the department (administrative district) of Puno, in the southern Andes of Peru, near the border with Bolivia. It is located at an altitude of more than 12,465 feet above sea level and is a difficult-to-reach area.

Who is Bishop Ciro Quispe López?

Bishop Ciro Quispe is 51 years old, and his resignation was accepted well before his 75th birthday, the usual retirement age for bishops.

Pope Francis appointed him in late 2018 during the time when then-Bishop Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru.

Quispe was ordained a priest in 2001. He served as parochial vicar of St. Jerome and St. Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco; as a professor of biblical sciences at the Pontifical and Civil School of Theology in Lima; and as parochial vicar of St. Beatrice, also in Lima.

He completed his studies for a degree in biblical theology and then a doctorate in biblical sciences at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.