Ricardo Centellas

Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzmán was born on 7 November 1962 in Suquistaca, Chuquisaca Department, Bolivia, within the Archdiocese of Sucre. He completed primary and secondary schooling in Caiza D Municipality in Potosí Department. In 1982 he took a propaedeutic course at San Cristóbal Seminary in Sucre, then studied philosophy and theology at San José Seminary in Cochabamba from 1983 to 1988. After ordination he earned a licentiate in spiritual theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1993.

Centellas was ordained a priest for Sucre on 11 August 1988 and served as parochial vicar at San Juan Bautista in Padilla (1989-1991). He joined the San Cristóbal Seminary formation staff, was rector from 1996 to 2003, and was vicar general of the Archdiocese of Sucre from 1998 to 2005.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop of Potosí in 2005 and Bishop of Potosí in 2009. He was president of the Episcopal Conference of Bolivia from 2015 to 2021 and also served as conference vice president in earlier and later periods. On 11 February 2020 Pope Francis named him Archbishop of Sucre; he was installed on 16 June 2020 and held the title of Archbishop Primate of Bolivia. He was Grand Chancellor of the Bolivian Catholic University.

As a Catholic bishop and later archbishop, Centellas lived under clerical celibacy. Public accounts after his death emphasized his work in seminary formation, conference leadership and pastoral service in Potosí and Chuquisaca rather than private family biography.

Centellas died on 24 September 2026 in Oruro, Bolivia, at age 63, of cardiac arrest while participating in activities marking an anniversary of the Bolivian Catholic University. Bolivian outlets including ANF, Erbol, Los Tiempos and La Patria reported the death the same day. His remains were transferred to Sucre for funeral rites, with the funeral Mass planned at the cathedral around 29 September. The Holy See's L'Osservatore Romano listed him among recent episcopal deaths. The Archdiocese of Sucre was left sede vacante.

Centellas is remembered as a seminary formator who became Bishop of Potosí, president of Bolivia's Episcopal Conference, and Archbishop Primate of Sucre. Colleagues and church media stressed his leadership of the Bolivian bishops during a turbulent national period and his ties to Catholic higher education as Grand Chancellor of the Bolivian Catholic University.