Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera was born on 11 October 1955 in Azogues, Ecuador. He attended the Franciscan minor seminaries in Azogues and Quito and studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, later taking a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Antonianum University in Rome. He entered the Order of Friars Minor, made his solemn vows on 4 September 1982, and was ordained a priest on 8 September 1983. He worked in the formation of Franciscan novices and aspirants, directed the Cardinal Bernardino Echeverría Philosophical-Theological Institute in Quito, was elected provincial minister of the Franciscans of Ecuador in August 2000, and from 2003 to 2009 served as a definitor of the Order, delegate of the Minister General for the Franciscan provinces of Latin America and the Caribbean.
On 20 April 2009 he was appointed Archbishop of Cuenca, receiving episcopal consecration on 4 July 2009. He was vice president of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference from 2011 to 2014. On 24 September 2015 Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Guayaquil. Elected president of the bishops' conference in 2020 and re-elected in 2023, he led the Church's mediation between the government and indigenous protesters in June 2022, and in 2023 Pope Francis named him a delegate president of the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis created him a cardinal in the consistory of 7 December 2024, assigning him the titular church of Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle. He is a member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He participated as a cardinal elector in the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
Consequential Quotes
Leonidas Iza called me and asked me if the church would agree to mediate the conversations with the government. We immediately accepted the idea and informed the government about it.
That has been an important exercise of democracy.
Promoting a culture of encounter, dialogue and coexistence remains one of the great challenges not only for the Church but for society itself.
Personally, I hope the elections will take place in an atmosphere of seriousness and respect for the decisions of the people, and that those elected will respond in a concrete way to the great aspirations of Ecuadorians, where the poor are the protagonists of their own development.
The abuse of minors and vulnerable people is an outcry that must be fought by all means, in families (65% or more) as much as in social, political and religious institutions.
We are not gods to decide who lives and who dies.
Major Works & Initiatives
Provincial Minister of the Franciscans of Ecuador
Elected provincial minister in August 2000 (to 2003); from 2003 to 2009 he was a definitor of the Order of Friars Minor and delegate of the Minister General for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Archbishop of Cuenca
Appointed on 20 April 2009 and consecrated on 4 July 2009; served Cuenca until his transfer to Guayaquil in 2015.
President of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference
Elected on 10 November 2020 and re-elected on 7 November 2023 (conference presidency dates per Wikipedia); in June 2022 he led the bishops' mediation that helped end the national strike.
Delegate President of the Synod on Synodality
Named by Pope Francis on 7 July 2023 as one of the delegate presidents of the first session of the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (per Wikipedia).
Controversies
Abortion and Ecuador's legislature
Cabrera's public preaching against abortion has placed him on one side of a contested national debate. On 12 February 2022, as Ecuador's National Assembly debated a bill on abortion in cases of rape, he preached at Guayaquil Cathedral, during the reception of the 'Voice of the Unborn' bell blessed by Pope Francis, that 'we are not gods to decide who lives and who dies' and that life begins at conception (ACI Prensa, via the Vicariate of Puyo). Supporters present such interventions as a defence of unborn life; the timing of the homily, amid a live legislative debate, is the contested point.