VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has appointed Franciscan Father Gerardo Antonio Vargas Cruz, currently vicar for clergy of the Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico, as coadjutor bishop of Fajardo-Humacao, Puerto Rico.
The appointment was announced at the Vatican Sept. 8.
Bishop-designate Vargas, 49, will serve alongside 72-year-old Bishop Luis Francisco Miranda Rivera, a Carmelite, who has led the Fajardo-Humacao Diocese since 2020. The bishop-designate will also automatically succeed Bishop Miranda upon his retirement; canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope when they turn 75.
Gerardo Antonio Vargas Cruz, was born Dec. 2, 1976, in Mayagüez. He joined the Order of Friars Minor in the Franciscan Custody of the Caribbean, carrying out his novitiate in the Dominican Republic. He continued his formation in Puerto Rico at the Universidad Central de Bayamón, graduating in social service and obtaining a master of divinity.
He gave his solemn profession in 2004 and was ordained a priest Aug. 12, 2006.
Appointment is a ‘gift to the Church’
Father Michael Perry, minister provincial of the Franciscans’ Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is the bishop-designate’s province, thanked God “for this gift to the Church, and we rejoice with the people of Fajardo-Humacao, who will soon know as their shepherd the brother we have long known as our own.”
In a Sept. 8 statement, Father Perry said he and the province “unite” with Bishop-designate Vargas “as he responds to this call of the Church.”
“We pledge him our fraternal support, holding him always in our prayers and in our hearts. He remains forever a member of our Order and of our Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe. May the Holy Spirit, whom St. Francis called the Minister General of our Order, enlighten and guide him as he now serves the Church in a new way.”
Prior to his current role as vicar for clergy in the San Juan Archdiocese, Bishop-designate Vargas held a number of positions, including as master of novices; national assistant of the Secular Franciscan Order in Puerto Rico; and deputy custos and custos of the Franciscan Custody of the Caribbean (2014 to 2017).
The custody, which included friars in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, was dissolved in 2022, and its ministries were transitioned to two neighboring administrative provinces.
Helped start Children of New Hope project
For six years, Bishop-designate Vargas lived in a Franciscan friary, where he helped start the Niños de Nueva Esperanza (Children of New Hope) project in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, which assists families and children from disadvantaged communities.
He has worked in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. As episcopal vicar for priests in the Archdiocese of San Juan, he looked after the spiritual well-being of nearly 100 diocesan priests across 143 parishes.
Bishop-designate Vargas also is a university professor, a director of radio programming, chaplain of Bayamón Prison and one of the Franciscan animators for the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s mission in Puerto Rico.
As a friar on that mission, then-Father Vargas told The Franciscan Way Newsletter in a May 27, 2025, interview that he is concerned about the vocations crisis, noting that not a single Puerto Rican Franciscan has been ordained in the 18 years since his own ordination.
In the same interview, he talked about what the greatest joy of being a Franciscan is for him: “When I hear someone thank me because I’ve given them back hope. Knowing that, as a friar, I’ve been able to change lives and show a more human, closer face of the church.”
The Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao serves the faithful throughout the east and northeast portions of Puerto Rico. It has 21 parishes across 10 municipalities.
