Carlos Aguiar Retes was born on 9 January 1950 in Tepic, in the Mexican state of Nayarit, the second of six children of Carlos Aguiar Manjarrez and María Teresa Retes Pérez-Sandi. He studied humanities and philosophy at the seminary of Tepic and theology at the Pontifical Seminary of Montezuma in New Mexico, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Tepic on 22 April 1973. A biblical scholar by formation, he was sent to Rome, where he earned a licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute and a doctorate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He served as rector of the seminary of Tepic and as professor of Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical University of Mexico, and took part in the team of scholars that prepared the Spanish-language translation la Biblia de América.
On 28 May 1997 Saint John Paul II named him Bishop of Texcoco, and he was consecrated on 29 June 1997. He rose quickly in the councils of the Latin American Church: secretary general of the Mexican Bishops' Conference (CEM) from 2004, then president of the CEM from 2006 to 2012; and within the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) secretary general (2000–2003) and first vice-president (2003–2007). In that role he took part in the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean bishops at Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007, whose concluding document was drafted under a commission chaired by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis. Appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Tlalnepantla on 5 February 2009, he was elected president of CELAM (2011–2015). Pope Francis created him a cardinal in the consistory of 19 November 2016, assigning him the titular church of Santi Fabiano e Venanzio a Villa Fiorelli, and on 7 December 2017 named him Archbishop of Mexico and Primate, succeeding Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera; he was installed on 5 February 2018.
Widely regarded as a moderate and a longtime ally of Pope Francis, with whom he shared the formative experience of Aparecida, Cardinal Aguiar has governed Mexico City as a scholar-pastor. He served as one of the presidential delegates of the Synod on Synodality and, in 2019, oversaw the division of the sprawling archdiocese into new dioceses to bring pastoral care, in his words, closer to the people. He has named social inequality as Mexico's most pressing wound and has stressed care for the poor, migrants, and vocations. His public positions reflect a settled Catholic register applied pastorally: firmly opposed to abortion, yet echoing Pope Francis in urging families not to reject their children and voicing support for legal civil-union protections.
Consequential Quotes
If we do it, we will transmit the faith; if we don't do it, we will turn into small groups of Catholics.
All of us are children of god, all are members of the family, and if we're fighting so that families are united, regardless of their conduct, they don't stop being our children. And that's what Pope Francis said, everyone has the right to family.
If they decide as a matter of free choice to be with another person, to be in a union, that's freedom.
closer to all the inhabitants
Major Works & Initiatives
The Aparecida Conference
As first vice-president of CELAM he took part in the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean bishops at Aparecida, Brazil, whose concluding document, drafted under a commission chaired by the future Pope Francis, became a charter of missionary discipleship and the 'preferential option for the poor' for the continent.
President of CELAM
Elected president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (2011–2015), having earlier served as its secretary general and first vice-president; the role gave him a continent-wide platform and deepened his working bond with Pope Francis.
President of the Mexican Bishops' Conference
Led the Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (CEM) from 2006 to 2012, after serving as its secretary general, guiding the national episcopate on questions of evangelization, social justice, and Church–state relations in Mexico.
Restructuring of the Archdiocese of Mexico
Advanced the division of the vast Mexico City archdiocese, creating the new dioceses of Azcapotzalco, Iztapalapa, and Xochimilco (announced 27 September 2019) to bring pastoral care 'closer to all the inhabitants', a scholar-pastor's structural reform mirroring his earlier partition of Tlalnepantla.
Controversies
Tensions with Mexico City clergy
After his 2018 installation as Primate, a segment of the Mexico City clergy publicly distanced themselves from Cardinal Aguiar, citing his sweeping structural reforms and a governing style contrasting with that of his predecessor, Norberto Rivera Carrera, including a narrower welcome for some outside religious communities that had been received under Rivera. Priests quoted in the Mexican press asked for dialogue rather than conflict; the cardinal pressed ahead with the reorganization, which culminated in the 2019 division of the archdiocese. Reporting on the friction has come partly from partisan outlets, and it is presented here as a matter of record rather than settled judgment.