Monsignor Daniel Víctor Villalobos Ortiz has been appointed the new rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe by the Archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes. A canon of Our Lady of Guadalupe and episcopal vicar for the clergy since August 2024, Monsignor Villalobos was also named exorcist of the Marian shrine in February of this year.In a statement released on July 12, Cardinal Aguiar Retes announced the appointment was made “after listening to the proposals presented by the Venerable Chapter of Guadalupe and the Permanent Council of the Mexican Episcopal Conference.”The cardinal has entrusted the new rector with leading a “new stage of institutional and pastoral renewal, with the collaboration of all the priests, deacons, consecrated persons and lay faithful who serve in this beloved shrine.”Cardinal Aguiar Retes also expressed his “gratitude for the service rendered” by the outgoing rector, Monsignor Efraín Hernández Díaz, whose resignation he accepted.
According to the Archdiocese of Mexico City, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe receives approximately 35 million pilgrims each year. During the Guadalupe celebrations in December 2025 alone, some 13 million visitors came to the shrine, according to figures from the Mexico City Government Secretariat.Who is the new rector of the Basilica of Guadalupe?Born in Mexico City on August 10, 1968, Monsignor Daniel Víctor Villalobos Ortiz was ordained a priest on July 12, 1998, in the Basilica of Guadalupe by then Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Colombian Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos.
Between 1997 and 2008 he served as an assistant to the then Archbishop Emeritus of Mexico, Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada. Throughout his ministry he has held various pastoral positions in parishes in Xochimilco, Tlalpan, Coyoacán, and Álvaro Obregón in Mexico City.In August 2024, he was appointed canon of the Basilica of Guadalupe and episcopal vicar for the clergy of the Archdiocese of Mexico City. Since February 2026, he has served as exorcist of the Basilica of Guadalupe.
The beginning of “a stage of updating and improvement”The Basilica of Guadalupe, Cardinal Aguiar Retes noted, “occupies a privileged place in the life of our particular Church and in the hearts of millions of pilgrims,” so “every decision related to this sacred site must always have as its purpose to strengthen its evangelizing mission and the service it offers to the People of God.”The cardinal reported that “we have begun a stage of updating and improving the administrative, operational and pastoral processes at the Basilica of Guadalupe,” taking “as a reference the updates promoted by Pope Francis for the Papal Basilicas of Saint Mary Major in Rome and Saint Peter in the Vatican.”
For the Marian shrine, which houses the tilma where the image of the Virgin was miraculously imprinted almost 500 years ago, the renovation will “help to distinguish the pastoral mission from the administrative operation,” in order to consolidate a “more efficient and orderly” institution.Cardinal Aguiar Retes also said that “since last year” “various administrative and operational reviews” have been carried out at the Basilica of Guadalupe, and that these were reported to the Mexican Episcopal Conference, the Apostolic Nunciature, and the Holy See.