Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 4 July 1959, the youngest of five siblings; both of his parents died during his adolescence. Educated at the Salesian-run Juan XXIII Institute, he took a bachelor's degree in civil law, entered the Salesian novitiate in 1979 and made his first religious profession on 31 January 1980. He was ordained a priest of the Society of Saint Francis de Sales on 21 November 1987, served in Salesian formation as master of novices and director of the Juan XXIII Institute, taught Church history, and earned a licentiate in theology from the Msgr. Mariano Soler Theological Institute in 2006. On 28 October 2008 he was named Salesian Inspector (provincial) in Uruguay and was subsequently elected president of the Conference of Religious of Uruguay.
On 10 December 2011 Pope Benedict XVI named him titular bishop of Phelbes and auxiliary bishop of Montevideo; he was consecrated a bishop on 4 March 2012. Pope Francis appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Montevideo on 11 February 2014, and he was installed on 9 March 2014.
Pope Francis created him a cardinal in the consistory of 14 February 2015, assigning him the titular church of Santa Galla. He leads the Church in one of Latin America's most secularized countries — Uruguay secularized its calendar of religious feasts in 1919, a history he examined in his 2010 book ¿Santa o de Turismo? — and has made evangelization of young people and of working-class neighborhoods a stated priority. He is a member of the Dicasteries for Institutes of Consecrated Life, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and for Bishops, and serves as apostolic administrator for Uruguay of the Armenian-rite apostolic exarchate for Latin America and Mexico. He participated as a cardinal elector in the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
Consequential Quotes
La secularización fue tan fuerte que llegó a las fiestas y nosotros queremos que las fiestas cristianas recobren su sentido.
Fue un paso atrás en lo que es una cultura de laicidad positiva en la que el Uruguay había crecido mucho.
En Montevideo, como toda la Iglesia uruguaya, es una Iglesia pobre y libre, pequeña y hermosa.
No se trata de achicarnos ni de agrandarnos, sino de estar contentos de la fe que creemos y vivimos.
What we see today – and I say this from the perspective of my own country, which is rather unusual in Latin America because it is a very secularized country - is that young people respond when they see a clearly Christian, religious proposition that goes to the depths of their spiritual lives.
Major Works & Initiatives
1916–1917: Separación de la Iglesia y el Estado en el Uruguay
Study of the 1916–1917 separation of Church and State in Uruguay, published in the Libro Annual of the Instituto Teológico del Uruguay Mariano Soler.
¿Santa o de Turismo? Calendario y secularización en el Uruguay
Book on the calendar and secularization in Uruguay — how the 1919 holidays law renamed Christian feasts, including Holy Week as 'Tourism Week'; published by Instituto Superior Salesiano, colección Proyecto Educativo.
Navidad con Jesús campaign
Signature Advent evangelization campaign launched in the Archdiocese of Montevideo in 2016 to restore the Christian meaning of Christmas — officially 'Family Day' in Uruguay — including the Novena of the Immaculate Conception, family prayer on Christmas Eve and Nativity balcony banners.
Vice President of the Episcopal Conference of Uruguay
Vice president of the Uruguayan bishops' conference since 2022, per the Jubilee 2025 office biography; within the conference he has held responsibility for the departments of Missions and of the Laity.
Controversies
Response to Fiducia Supplicans (2023)
In a December 2023 interview with the Uruguayan newspaper El País, reported by ACI Prensa/CNA, Cardinal Sturla said the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which permits non-liturgical blessings of same-sex and other couples in irregular situations, was not a topic that should have come out at Christmas, calling it controversial and saying it creates confusion and divisions within the Church. In the same interview he restated that a priest blesses all persons who ask, while couples as such are not blessed — the Church's prior practice, which he said should continue. Supporters of the declaration, including its prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, maintained that it does not alter the Church's teaching on marriage.
Church–state disputes over education and public religious symbols (2017)
Speaking to ACI Prensa in Rome in November 2017, during the Uruguayan bishops' ad limina visit, Cardinal Sturla discussed the Church's opposition to a public-school sex-education proposal based on what he called gender ideology, and the archdiocese's alternative proposal grounded in natural anthropology. In the same interview he criticized the Montevideo departmental board's refusal to allow an image of the Virgin Mary on the city's coastal promenade, calling the decision a setback for Uruguay's culture of positive laicity. Both episodes were reported as part of ongoing church–state debate in Uruguay, where supporters of strict laicity defended the decisions.
Sources
- Holy See Press Office — biography
- Wikipedia
- ACI Prensa — interview, 21 November 2017
- Omnes (Palabra interview) — Cardinal Sturla on a post-pandemic life with more hope
- Jubilee 2025 (iubilaeum2025.va) — interview on the Jubilee and evangelization
- ACI Prensa — Fiducia Supplicans comments, December 2023