Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne is a retired Peruvian prelate of Opus Dei known for his orthodoxy on moral and social issues and for his distinguished leadership within the Catholic Church.

Born on December 28, 1943 in Lima, Peru, Cipriani began his journey as an industrial engineer and champion basketball player¹Cipriani even joined the Peruvian national basketball team and won an international tournament with that team in 1969 before joining Opus Dei in 1962.

He was ordained as a priest of Opus Dei in 1977 in Madrid and obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Navarra in Spain.

Cipriani’s ecclesiastical career progressed rapidly. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Ayacucho in 1988, promoted to Archbishop of Ayacucho in 1995 during the trying times of the Shining Path terrorist violence, and then became Archbishop of Lima in 1999. Pope John Paul II elevated him to cardinal in 2001.

Throughout his career, Cipriani was unafraid to uphold orthodoxy and orthopraxis. In 2008, he banned the practice of receiving Communion in the hand, requiring the faithful to receive on the tongue instead.

He has also been a vocal opponent of abortion, saying on television in 2016: “Statistics tell us that girls get abortions, but it is not because these girls were violated, but because, often, the woman puts herself on provoking display.”²His comments prompted a backlash which led to the archdiocese saying his words had been “wrongly misinterpreted” and that he made a “fervent call for the protection of all girls and women in Peru.”

Cipriani has also spoken out against gender ideology, stressing that the structure of society that “is made up of men and women.”  A few days earlier, he said that campaigns to undermine the dignity of women as women and mothers, seeking to impose the so-called gender ideology, were “not humane.”

The cardinal has also been a vocal critic of same-sex relationships and regularly denounced efforts to recognize homosexual unions. In 2005, Cipriani commented on the recent legalization of same-sex unions in Spain and denounced the existence of a worldwide campaign, warning that by legalizing same-sex unions, society is “disfigured.”³He said: “In today’s world, evil disguises itself as good, it is imposed on others, and woe to him who does not accept it!” He called on the faithful not to refer to relationships that “are not between a man and a woman” as marriage. He said: “Call it what you want but don’t sell damaged goods, don’t traffic in that dictatorship of moral relativism in which there is nothing good, only opinions and trends of thought.” In 2013, he opposed legislation to create same-sex civil unions in Peru. He called it “an old strategy” that “starts by putting the shoe on the door with this law and ends up asking for marriage between homosexuals.” He said everyone was free to enter into contracts with one another, “but it is not necessary to start making a caricature of marriage and then destroy it.”

Cipriani was chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) in 1997 when it barred a homosexual student organization from holding events. He had a pamphlet titled “Sexual Identity: Is It Possible to Choose?” prepared and distributed which described homosexuality as a curable illness.

One of Cipriani’s most notable achievements was leading the March for Life in Lima, which in 2018 brought together 800,000 people in defense of the right to life. He also attempted to mediate during a siege of the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima from 1996 to 1997.

In 2004, Peru’s Truth Commission investigated human rights abuses committed by government forces during the 1980s and 1990s and concluded that Cipriani had failed to defend human rights while auxiliary bishop and archbishop of Ayacucho. The period marked by conflict with the Shining Path terrorist group. Cipriani rejected the report’s findings. In 1991, he criticized organizations using human rights for political gain and exploitation. “Most institutions called ‘human rights defense’ are the backbones of political movements, almost always of the Marxist and Maoist type,” he said.⁴ “NA”. El Comercio. 11 March 1991.

In 1995, Cipriani supported an amnesty for state military officials accused of war crimes, saying he believed it would “achieve internal peace, because it is necessary to forgive to achieve reconciliation.”

Cipriani reportedly helped save many young people in Ayacucho from being recruited by the Shining Path. As one witness, Alfredo Gildemeister, recalled in 2019: “At night, during the curfews in Ayacucho, [Cipriani] would sneak out through the dark streets to bring them to hide them in his house, in order to save them from the terrible Shining Path recruitments. Luckily, those passing by or the patrolling soldiers there didn’t see him.”

In the late 2000s, Cipriani entered into a long running battle with the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru lasting almost ten years over his attempts to control the university’s financial and academic affairs. Although Pope Benedict supported him, Pope Francis resolved the dispute with an accord but one that sidelined Cipriani.

From 2014 to 2020, the cardinal was also a member of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy which oversaw the Vatican’s financial institutions and reform of Vatican finances under Pope Francis.

In May 2018, Peru’s Congress awarded Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani the prestigious Medal of Honor in the Degree of Grand Cross in recognition of his “outstanding pastoral life and evangelizing work, his career as primate of the Catholic Church of Peru, and his commitment to peace in our country.”

Cipriani voted in the 2005 and 2013 conclaves and was considered papabile in both of them.