His Eminence Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne (born 28 December 1943) is a Cardinal Priest and Archbishop of Lima in the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in Lima, Thorne was a champion basketball player as a young man and studied industrial engineering at the National Institute of Engineering in Peru. After working as an engineer, he was ordained a priest in 1977; he holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Navarre . In his service to the church, he did pastoral work in Lima, taught at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology , and was Regional Vicar for Peru and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Piura .

In 1988, he was appointed titular Bishop of Turuzi and Auxiliary of Ayacucho, and was promoted to Archbishop of Ayacucho in 1995. During the 1996-1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis, he attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement, and ministered to Japanese and Peruvian hostages.

Named Archbishop of Lima in 1999, Cipriani Thorne was proclaimed Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of 21 February 2001, with the title Cardinal Priest of San Camillo de Lelli. He was one of the cardinals considered papabile at the 2005 Papal conclave to elect a successor to John Paul II.

Cipriani Thorne has been known since the early 1980s for his hostile attitude to human rights groups, including groups lead by Catholic priests and laypeople. In contrast with his predecessor, the otherwise equally conservative Vargas Alzamora, Cipriani failed to condemn the widespread human rights abuses committed by Peruvian state forces during the 1980s and 1990s.

Cardinal Cipriani is a member of the Personal Prelature Opus Dei; he is the first declared member of the Opus Dei to be made a cardinal. Cardinal Cipriani is also Great Chancellor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

External links

• Biography at catholic-pages.com