Luis Pascual Dri

Luis Pascual Dri, OFM Cap. (born 17 April 1927), is an Argentine priest of the Catholic Church. He is a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 30 September 2023.

Biography
Luis Pascual Dri was born on 17 April 1927 in Federación, in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. From a very young age he took care of the work in the fields, taking care of the animals and also planting corn and alfalfa. He attended the local rural school. He entered the Capuchin Seminary at the age of 11 in January 1938 and completed his primary and secondary studies there. He entered the novitiate in the Nuevo París neighborhood of Montevideo, Uruguay and took his first vows on 21 February 1945. In 1949 he made his perpetual profession. He was ordained a priest on 29 March 1952 in the cathedral of Montevideo.

He became director of the San Francisco de Carrasco Minor Seminary in 1953. In 1955 he became director of the Seraphic Seminary of Villa Gdor, Galvez, Argentina, and in 1959 master of novices in San Francisco de Carrasco. Beginning in 1961 he worked in Europe as formator of novices.

From 1962 to 1974 he taught at the Colegio y Liceo Secco Illa de Uruguay. He was briefly the parish priest in Empalme and Colonia Nicolich and then in 1976 became master of novices in the Minas, Uruguay, moving in 1983 to the parish of San Enrique de Villa Gdor in Galvez. In 1987 he was appointed parish priest of Santa María de la Ayuda in El Cerro de Montevideo. From 2000 to 2003 he was parish priest at the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompei (Buenos Aires) in the Nueva Pompeya neighborhood of Buenos Aires, then parish priest in Mar del Plata. He retired in 2007 at the age of 80 and returned to the Shrine where he continues to hear confessions for several hours each day.

Pope Francis has spoken of his work as a confessor on several occasions. Dri has described meeting Pope Francis often when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and reported that Francis had then sent priests to see him for counseling. Dri in turn cites as his models and mentors two Capuchins, Leopold Mandić and Padre Pio, having the latter as his confessor in 1960 when they lived in the same convent.

On 9 July 2023, Pope Francis announced he plans to make him a cardinal at a consistory scheduled for 30 September. Dri did not attend the consistory because of his health and age. He received his cardinal's regalia on 11 October from Archbishop Mirosław Adamczyk, Apostolic Nuncio to Argentina, at a ceremony in the cathedral of Buenos Aires. At that consistory he was made cardinal deacon of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria.