Obituary: Richard Daniel Alarcón Urrutia, dead at age 74,Peruvian Roman Catholic prelate, bishop of Tarma and archbishop of Cusco

Richard Daniel Alarcón Urrutia, a Peruvian Roman Catholic prelate who served as bishop of Tarma and archbishop of Cusco, died of cancer in Cusco on October 30, 2026, aged 74.

Born in Lima on April 10, 1952, he completed primary school there before continuing his secondary education as an aspirant to religious life at a school of the Order of Friars Minor. He then studied philosophy and theology at the Faculty of Pontifical and Civil Theology of Lima.

Alarcón Urrutia made his solemn profession in the Order of Friars Minor on May 15, 1976, and was ordained a priest in Lima on December 8 that year. On April 20, 1993, he was incardinated into the secular clergy of the Diocese of Tarma. He became Bishop of Tarma in 2001, his first episcopal appointment, and served in that role until 2014. That year, he became Archbishop of Cusco, a post he held until his death. His church service thus included formation and priestly ministry in Lima, work as a diocesan priest in Tarma, and leadership of the dioceses of Tarma and Cusco. The archbishopric followed 13 years after his appointment as bishop, marking a transition from a diocesan bishopric to leadership of an archdiocese.