Exorcist is new rector of Mexico City’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica

Monsignor Daniel Víctor Villalobos Ortiz has been appointed the new rector of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City by the primatial archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes.

A canon of the basilica and episcopal vicar for the clergy since August 2024, he was named exorcist for the Marian shrine in February of this year.

In a July 12 statement, Aguiar announced the appointment “after hearing the proposals presented by the Venerable Chapter of Guadalupe and the Permanent Council of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference.”

The cardinal commissioned the rector to lead a “new phase of institutional and pastoral renewal, with the collaboration of all the priests, deacons, consecrated persons, and lay faithful who serve at this beloved shrine.”

The cardinal 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, the shrine receives around 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.…