Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise, R.I.P.

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Yesterday, His Excellency Juan Rodolfo Laise, Bishop Emeritus of San Luis, Argentina, passed away at the age of 93 at the Capuchin Convent of San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, where he had been living in retirement for several years. A native of Buenos Aires, he was ordained as a priest of the Capuchin Order in 1949, and served as bishop of San Luis for just under 40 years, from July of 1971 to June of 2001. In 2015, he attended the annual Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome, celebrating Pontifical Vespers and Benediction at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, and the principal Mass the following day in St Peter’s Basilica. Bishop Laise was also an ardent defender of the traditional practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, a subject on which he wrote a very useful book; during his time as bishop of San Luis, he refused to allow permission for Communion in the hand within the diocese.

Bishop Laise imparting the Pontifical Blessing at the end of the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, during the 2015 Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage.

Deus, qui inter Apostolicos sacerdotes famulum tuum Joannem Rudolphum pontificali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta quaesumus; ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregetur consortio. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.