Cristóbal López Romero

Cristóbal López Romero (19 May 1952–) is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who serves as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Rabat.

Quotes

• The priority is not to expand the Church. The priority is not to be more, to have more baptisms or religious weddings. The priority is to build a world of brothers and sisters with those who share our faith or have a different faith, and with those who have no faith.
  • Card. López Romero: I doubted if I should become a priest, but one question changed me (12 October 2019)

• The Church, which is not only the bishops, must be where there is pain. Christians must be like the blood that goes to the wound without being called. When the blood gushes from the wound, it is not that it wants to escape; it wants to close the wound with platelets. A Christian should be where there is a wound in the world, trying to heal that wound. One should be everywhere, but especially where there is a wound.
  • Card. López Romero: "Being a Salesian is my Christian identity" (31 March 2022)

• If I am elected, I will flee from the Conclave.
  • As quoted in Cardinal's Witty Escape Plan, Il Messaggero (May 3, 2025)

• I don't like my name appearing on the papal candidate lists.
  • As quoted iin Christopher White, Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero: A bridge-builder pope?, National Catholic Register (May 3, 2025)

• I suffer a lot when, in Spain, some people, after having participated in the Eucharistic celebration, ask me, in a spiteful tone, not to send any more migrants from Morocco. I ask myself: how is it possible to go to Mass and feel almost no compassion for the men, women and children who are suffering?
  • As quoted in John L. Allen Jr., ‘Papabile’ of the Day: Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, Crux (May 4, 2025)

• For me, Pope Francis was like a father, a model pastor, a friend who knew me. I greeted him for the first time at one of those meetings where there are 200 people and the Pope shakes hands with everyone. Then in 2018, he appointed me Bishop of Rabat at the request of the corresponding congregation, and when I got to know him a little better, he admitted that he had appointed me bishop without even knowing what I looked like. I got to know him on a more personal level in 2019, when Francis came to Morocco and I was the host who was to receive him. He came to comfort us and to confirm us in the faith. My fondest memory of that visit was when we went together to visit a social work, in a visit described as private, in which only the driver, security, he and I were present. We sat in the back seat of the car, talking in Spanish and laughing together, first for 20 minutes on the way there and then for 30 minutes on the way back. And there I was able to explain to him who I was and what the Church was like in Morocco. And he probably liked me, because I made him laugh.
  • Per me Papa Francesco è stato come un padre, un modello di pastore, un amico che mi conosceva. Lo salutai una prima volta in uno di quegli incontri in cui ci sono 200 persone e il Papa stringe la mano a ciascuno. Poi nel 2018 mi nominò Vescovo di Rabat su richiesta della congregazione corrispondente, e quando ho avuto modo di conoscerlo con un po’ più di tempo, ha riconosciuto di avermi nominato vescovo senza nemmeno sapere che faccia avessi. Ho avuto modo di conoscerlo a livello più personale nel 2019, quando Francesco venne in Marocco e io ero l’anfitrione che doveva riceverlo. Venne da noi per confortarci e per confermarci nella fede. Il mio ricordo più caro di quella visita fu quando andammo insieme a visitare un’opera sociale, in una visita descritta come privata, alla quale eravamo presenti solo l’autista, la sicurezza, lui ed io. Ci siamo seduti sul sedile posteriore dell’auto, parlando in spagnolo e ridendo insieme, prima per 20 minuti all’andata e poi per 30 minuti al ritorno. E lì ho potuto spiegargli chi ero e com’era la Chiesa in Marocco. E probabilmente gli sono piaciuto, perché lo feci ridere.
  • As quoted in Vaticano – Cardinal López Romero, SDB: “Per me Papa Francesco è stato un padre, un modello, un amico”, Agenzia Info salesiana (in Italian; May 2, 2025)

• Emigrating is a human right, but before that right to migrate, everyone also has the right to stay where they were born and where they have developed their lives.

The Church, in collaboration with governments and civil society, helps people to become aware of these rights and also to fight to be able to exercise them. Rights do not fall from the sky; we have to claim them. They are the result of personal and community efforts.

Each country must see how to deal with these migratory phenomena, which are not in themselves problems. The problems are war, political persecution, and economic inequality. All of these factors lead to disorder in migration, which could become a permanent phenomenon in the history of humanity, an orderly, regular, and positive issue.

• • From an interview of Delphine Allaire, Cardinal Lopez Romero: Pope visits Marseille to build peace without borders, Vatican News (September 21, 2023)

• (About the 2023 Morocco's earthquake) Most of all, I think they will need people to come and support them, because psychologically and spiritually they are very affected.
  • As quoted in Cardinal Lopez Romero: Rebuilding Morocco May Take Years, Plea for Solidarity with Lybia (September 13, 2023)

• Ours is an unassuming Church -- we are less than 0.1% of the population -- but it seeks to be significant, and it desires to be a sign and sacrament of the Kingdom of God. To live dialogue on a daily basis, the Christian must know and feel himself as the ‘sacrament of encounter. The whole local Church must ask itself how to concretely live its mission. Our Church is a Church of encounter and dialogue. Yet, although we have made a good start, we can do much more. or example, how to live Islamic-Christian dialogue after the pope’s visit, after Fratelli tutti, after the document of the Universal Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam al Tayyeb?
  • As quoted in Morocco’s cardinal: Christians should be a ‘sacrament of encounter’ for Muslim neighbors, Catholic News Agency (June 4, 2021)