Roman Catholic Diocese of La Rioja

The Roman Catholic Diocese of La Rioja (Latin: Dioecesis Rioiensis) is in Argentina and is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of San Juan de Cuyo.

Diocese of La Rioja Dioecesis Rioiensis Diócesis de La Rioja
Cathedral Basilica of St. Nicholas of Bari
Location
Country	Argentina
Ecclesiastical province	San Juan de Cuyo
Metropolitan	San Juan de Cuyo
Statistics
Area	92,100 km2 (35,600 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2004) 305,000 265,350 (87%)
Parishes	28
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	20 April 1934 (90 years ago)
Cathedral	Cathedral Basilica of St Nicholas in La Rioja
Patron saint	Saint Nicholas St Francis Solanus
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Dante Gustavo Braida Lorenzón
Metropolitan Archbishop	Jorge Eduardo Lozano
Bishops emeritus	Roberto Rodríguez

On Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Pope Francis accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Rioja (La Rioja, Argentina), presented by Bishop Roberto Rodríguez, in accordance with Canon 401.1 of the Latin-rite 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Pope Francis appointed as the next bishop of the same diocese, Bishop Daniel Marcelo Colombo, until now serving as the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oran. Bishop Daniel Marcelo Colombo was born in the national capital and largest city, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 27, 1961, after earning a bachelor's degree of mercantile appraiser and the title of lawyer at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1982 he entered the seminary of Quilmes. Ordained a priest on 16 December 1988, in 1994 he obtained a doctorate in canon law from the Angelicum, in Rome. He held various positions in different parishes, in the Curia and the Seminary of Quilmes and was professor at the Faculty of Canon Law of the Catholic University Argentina and Episcopal Delegate at the Catholic University of La Plata. In 2004 he was appointed parish priest of the Cathedral of Quilmes.

He was appointed Bishop of Oran on May 8, 2008, and was consecrated on 8 August following.

History

On 20 April 1934 Pope Pius XI founded the Diocese of La Rioja from territory taken from the Diocese of Córdoba del Tucumán.

Bishops

Ordinaries

• Froilán Ferreira Reinafé (1934–1964)
• Horacio Arturo Gómez Dávila (1964–1968)
• Enrique A. Angelelli Carletti (1968–1976)
• Bernardo Enrique Witte, O.M.I. (1977–1992), appointed Bishop of Concepción
• Fabriciano Sigampa (1992–2005), appointed Archbishop of Resistencia
• Roberto Rodríguez (2006–2013)
• Daniel Marcelo Colombo (2013–2018), appointed Archbishop of Mendoza
• Dante Gustavo Braida Lorenzón (2018- )

Coadjutor bishop

• Horacio Arturo Gómez Dávila (1960–1964)

Other priest of this diocese who became bishop

• Enrique Alberto Martínez Ossola, appointed auxiliary bishop of Santiago del Estero in 2017