In a rare but not unprecedented decision, Pope Leo XIV transferred Bishop Gabriel Narciso Escobar Ayala, S.D.B., who has led the apostolic vicariate of Chaco Paraguayo since 2013, to the Archdiocese of Asunción, where he will serve as an auxiliary bishop.
As vicar apostolic, Bishop Escobar served as ordinary of an ecclesiastical circumscription with 16,200 Catholics, 10 parishes, 10 diocesan and religious priests, and six seminarians. The 55-year-old prelate will now serve as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Asunción which, despite having more than 1.9 million Catholics, has lacked an auxiliary bishop since 2003.