Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio was born in Lima, Peru, on 28 February 1950. He read social sciences at the National University of San Marcos, where in the National Union of Catholic Students he came under the influence of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, founder of liberation theology. After seminary in Lima he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University — philosophy (1979), theology (1983), a licentiate (1985) and a doctorate in dogmatic theology (1987). Ordained on 15 July 1984 by Cardinal Juan Landázuri, he spent thirty years as theology lecturer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and as a parish priest in Lima's poor districts, with national responsibility for youth ministry.
On 25 January 2019 Pope Francis appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Lima, succeeding Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani — he was consecrated on 2 March 2019. Francis created him a cardinal on 7 December 2024, with the title of Santa Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone.
Consequential Quotes
Our Church is linked to our people because the Lord has called them ‘the people of God’, his people.
We do not go to the right or to the left or in the center, we go deep. This is our mission! Everything can be perfected if you go to the bottom of things.
It is essential for us to maintain a level of entering and contemplating the mystery of the Lord made bread for us, the mystery of the transubstantiation as we call it more technically, which means the real presence of the Lord.
Gutiérrez was a tireless defender of the preferential option for the poor, a phrase he coined and which entered the Magisterium of the Church as a fundamental path for living our faith.
Major Works & Initiatives
Archbishop of Lima
Primate of Peru, broadcasting Sunday Mass to millions.
Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Three decades teaching theology alongside pastoral work.
National assessor for youth pastoral care
Shaped the Peruvian Church's youth ministry.
Libres para creer
His book on conversion in Bartolomé de las Casas's Historia de las Indias, from his Gregorian doctoral research (Fondo Editorial, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú).
Controversies
Suspended under Cipriani (2013)
In 2013 Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, then Archbishop of Lima and an Opus Dei conservative, suspended Castillo from his university teaching amid allegations of heterodoxy and “attacks on the ecclesiastical hierarchy.” Six years later Francis appointed Castillo to Cipriani's own see.