Born in Pamplona, Spain, to a family of shepherds based in Lecumberri in the Navarra region[1] on 15 February 1946,[2] Sucunza moved with his family to Argentina, arriving on 11 December 1948.[1] He completed all his studies for the priesthood at the Buenos Aires seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on 27 November 1971. He fulfilled a series parish assignments over the next three decades and was named episcopal vicar for the central zone of Buenos Aires in 1998.[2]
Bergoglio gave him increasing responsibility, naming him moderator of the curia on 12 December 2000, vicar general on 27 April 2002, and episcopal vicar for economic affairs on 3 June 2008.[3]
He was vicar general of the Archdiocese when Archbishop Bergoglio was elected to the papacy,[5] and the administrators of the archdiocese chose him to head the Archdiocese until Bergoglio named a successor.[4] Sucunza reported that Pope Francis called him the day after his election and they spoke for 45 minutes. He quoted Francis as saying of the papal election: "When I saw that the number was already irreversible as the votes were counted, I imagined I was dying, ... a very rare thing, inside of me. When that brief moment passed, I felt different. I do not know what happened to me, but I felt different."[1]
In addition to participating with the other Argentine bishops in ad limina visits with the pope, he had a personal visit with Pope Francis on 22 November 2018.[6]
