TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference, was elected to head the Latin American bishops’ council, or CELAM, during a May 15 meeting of bishops from 22 Latin American and Caribbean bishops’ conferences.
Cabrejos heads the Archdiocese of Trujillo on Peru’s north coast, where he hosted Pope Francis during the pontiff’s visit to Peru in January 2018. He will serve in his new post until 2023.
The archbishop was born in 1948 in a rural province in the northern Peruvian region of Cajamarca and was ordained in 1974. Before being named to head the Archdiocese of Trujillo, he served as bishop to the country’s armed forces.
He was elected in 2018 to a second term as president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference after serving a first term from 2009 to 2012. He was a founder of the Catholic University of Trujillo, where he serves as grand chancellor, and is also vice grand chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima.
