Carlos Aguiar Retes

Carlos Aguiar Retes (born 9 January 1950) is a Mexican cardinal of the Catholic Church who serves as the Archbishop of Mexico City. He has served as an officer of the Mexican Episcopal Conference and the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) and been president of both.

Aguiar Retes was born on 9 January 1950, in Tepic, Mexico, the second of their six children.

His parents were Carlos Aguiar Manjarrez and María Teresa Retes Pérez-Sandi.

He studied Humanities and Philosophy at the Seminary of Tepic, graduating in 1969, and theology at the Pontifical Seminary of Montezuma in Montezuma, New Mexico, in the United States through 1972, and at the Seminary of Tula, Hidalgo, finishing in 1973.

He was ordained a deacon on 24 December 1971.

He was ordained a priest on 23 April 1973 in the Cathedral of Tepic.

That year he began working as parochial vicar in the Parish of St. Maria Goretti, where he remained until 1974.

He studied in Rome at the Pontifical Latin American College from 1974 to 1977, where he earned a degree in Holy Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

He returned to Mexico and was appointed rector of the Seminary of Tepic.

In 1991 he returned to Rome to continue his studies.

From 1992 to 1993 he was part of a team of biblical scholars who prepared the edition of la Biblia de América, a translation of the Bible into accessible language.

In 1996 he completed a doctorate in biblical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, with a thesis "Criticism of the prophets fasting".

Between 1996 and 1997 he held the chair of Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical University of Mexico, where he was also rector of the John XXIII Residence for Priests.

In addition to Spanish, Aguiar is fluent in Italian, English, French and German.

On 28 May 1997 Pope John Paul II appointed him the third bishop of Texcoco.

He was ordained a bishop on 29 June.

In May 2003, he was elected to a four-year term as Vice President of the Latin American Bishops' Conference (CELAM).

In preparation for that year's conference held in Aparecida, Brazil, he authored a paper on globalization and the new evangelization that linked the devaluation of local cultures and traditional community-sanctioned norms to the economic forces behind mass migration and environmental damage.

At the conference, he served on the drafting committee headed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (later Pope Francis) that produced a conference statement that endorsed key elements of liberation theology recast as less overtly political and integrated into the Church's mission.

He helped draft the landmark mission statement CELAM issued at the close of its 2007 conference in Aparecida.

He was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on 8 March 2007.

In 2008 he discussed the relationship between the Mexican bishops and drug traffickers who at times funded the construction of local churches.

After several other bishops denied the Church accepted donations of funds from illegal activities, Aguiar said the drug lords "are generous and often they provide money for building a church or chapel" and "install electricity, establish communication links, highways [and] roads" in poor communities.

He said that some criminals hope to ease their consciences through good works and seek reassurances from the clergy: "There has been a rapprochement with them as it's known that discretion is going to be kept. What they want is to encounter peace in their consciences. What they're going to get from us is a sharp response: Change your life."

He was archbishop of Tlalnepantla from 2009 to 2017 and Bishop of Texcoco from 1997 to 2009.

David Agren of the Catholic News Service calls him a "longtime ally" of Pope Francis who combines "intellectual finesse with a pastoral passion".

On 5 February 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named him Archbishop of Tlalnepantla.

He was installed on 31 March.

In 2009 Aguiar helped negotiate an enhanced constitutional recognition of religious liberty.

He worked with Governor Eruviel Ávila and representatives of other religions on a statement of shared values, the "Pact for the Strengthening of Values with Religious Associations" ("Pacto por el Fortalecimiento de los Valores con Asociaciones Religiosas"), to coordinate efforts to strengthen social institutions.

One analyst of church appointments noted that this was a less prestigious appointment than his career path indicated, suggesting Pope Benedict had expressed some disfavor in failing to appoint him to the archdioceses of Guadalajara in 2011 and Monterrey in 2012.

In May 2011, when he was head of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, he was elected to a four-year term as President of the Latin American Bishops' Conference (CELAM).

He previously served as the organization's secretary-general and vice president.

He presented an interviewer with his assessment of the Latin American church as "the transition from a time when Christian values were accepted by everyone to a situation where the models are changing, and a multi-cultural society is forming".

He said:

"We can't take the view that our primary task is to stand on the threshold checking whether or not people have the administrative requirements for belonging to the Church. This is the moment to proclaim the essentials of Christianity, to everybody. To people as they are, in the concrete circumstances in which they live now, with the expectations that they now have. In the area of Mexico where I live, there are twelve dioceses where people live who come and go each day because of their vital needs. That’s the point, we must take on board all the new conditions of coexistence. For example, making access to the sacraments easier, so that the demands of the parish do not become a reason to lose all contact with the Church."

He said that ideological descriptions of church activity were outdated, that most of the Church leadership recognized the need to promote government policies rather than align themselves with a particular government, and that humility about the Church's failings would render media attempts to "denigrate the ecclesiastical institution" harmless.

He nevertheless worked in concert with local government officials, including Enrique Peña Nieto, the Governor of the state of Mexico who later became President of Mexico.

The state government helped fund some religious instruction.

On 18 September 2012, Pope Benedict named Aguiar to participate in the October 2012 Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.