Alfonso María Bauer Ormazábal was born in Montevideo on 23 July 1968. In the same city, he completed his novitiate between 1987 and 1988. He made his first profession as a Salesian on 31 January 1988, his perpetual profession on 31 January 1994, and was ordained a priest on 16 November 1996, also in Montevideo.
Over the years, he has held numerous responsibilities. In the Diocese of Florida, he served as Pastoral Coordinator and Director of the Paiva Institute (1997–2002), and later at the House of Formation (2003–2008). He was Community Director (2011–2017), Institute Director (2011–2013), Delegate for Aspirants and Pre-Novices (2013–2017), and Parish Priest (2017) at the Villa Colón community of Colegio Pío.
Within the Salesian Province of “St Joseph” in Uruguay (URU), he served as Provincial Delegate for Youth Ministry (2004–2007), Vocations (2004–2009), and Formation (2008–2009). He was Provincial Vicar from 2012 to 2018 and subsequently Provincial for the six-year term 2018–2024.
At the ecclesial level, he has served as Vice-President (2018) and President (2022) of the Conference of Religious of Uruguay, and since 2023 as Vicar for Consecrated Life of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Montevideo.
In 2024, together with Fr Gabriel Romero, Councillor for the South American Region, he served as Extraordinary Visitor to the Salesian works of the “Ceferino Namuncurá” Province of Southern Argentina (ARS). He currently serves as Director and Novice Master of the Salesian Inter-Provincial Novitiate in Montevideo.
Fr Bauer, of German descent on his father’s side, attended the course for formators at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS) in Rome and the School for Formators “Mary, Mother of the Consecrated” in Córdoba, Argentina. At the UPS, he also obtained a Licentiate in Spiritual Theology, specialising in the formation of formators and vocational animation.
Fr Bauer succeeds Bishop Martín Pablo Pérez Scremini, who has served as Bishop of Florida since March 2008.
