Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer was born in Manacor, on the island of Mallorca, on 19 April 1944. He graduated in law from the University of Madrid in 1966 and entered the Society of Jesus that same year. After philosophy and theology at Comillas and Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt, he was ordained a priest on 29 July 1973, and in 1975 took a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University with a thesis on the Holy Spirit in St Hilary of Poitiers.
For thirty years he taught dogmatic theology — at Comillas, then from 1984 at the Gregorian, where he was vice-rector from 1986 to 1994. He served on the International Theological Commission (1992–97), consulted for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1995, and as the ITC's secretary-general from 2004 led its evaluation of limbo and the salvation of unbaptized infants. Benedict XVI made him secretary of the CDF in 2008 (titular Archbishop of Thibica; consecrated by Cardinal Bertone on 26 July 2008). On 1 July 2017 Francis appointed him prefect of the doctrine office — also heading the Ecclesia Dei, Biblical, and International Theological commissions — and created him a cardinal on 28 June 2018, with the deaconry of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio. He retired in 2023.
Major Works & Initiatives
Secretary of the doctrine office
Nine years as number two to Cardinals Levada and Müller.
Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
Six years as Francis's doctrine chief.
The limbo evaluation
As ITC secretary-general he led the study concluding that hope of salvation for unbaptized infants “cannot be ruled out.”
Controversies
On the record
No significant public controversies reported.