Cardinal Luis Pascual Dri, Argentine friar held up by Pope Francis as model confessor, dies at 98

ROME — Cardinal Luis Pascual Dri, the Argentine priest whom Pope Francis held up as the model confessor, has died in Buenos Aires at age 98, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Dri, a Capuchin friar, died Monday in the Argentine capital, where his funeral was being celebrated Wednesday, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said.

Dri was made a cardinal by Francis in 2023 at the age of 96 in recognition of his lifetime of work hearing confessions of the faithful and dispensing merciful absolutions. Up until his death, he worked as the confessor at the Our Lady of Pompeii parish in Buenos Aires.

Francis frequently referred to Dri during his pontificate and held him up as a model confessor for other priests, urging them to always be merciful in the confessional. For Francis, the sacrament of reconciliation was particularly important and he urged priests to always pardon those who seek forgiveness.

He once quoted Dri as saying he was so willing to dispense absolutions because God himself “gave me a bad example” in forgiving all his sins.

Pope Leo XIV, who was made a cardinal during the same consistory as Dri, issued a message of condolences Wednesday signed by the Vatican secretary of state. In it, he recalled Dri as a “devoted pastor, who was so dear to Pope Francis, and who for so many years gave his life to the service of God and the church as a confessor.”