Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Villahermosa, Alfonso López Trujillo came from a prominent family. His father was in charge of the general accounting office of the state while one of his brothers was minister of state. Moving to Bogotá as a young boy, he attended university and then seminary there, eventually completing his studies in Rome, earning a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. Ordained priest on November 13, 1960, after studying in Rome for an additional two years at the Pontifical Institute of Spirituality Teresianum, he returned to Bogotá where he taught philosophy at the local seminary for four years. Organizing the New Pastoral Department of the Archdiocese of Bogotá in 1968, he served as vicar general of the archdiocese between 1970 and 1972. Pastor, counselor and faculty member at local the National University, on February 25, 1971 Pope Paul VI elected him to the titular archbishopric see of Boseta and named him auxiliary for the metropolitan see of Bogotá. Receiving his episcopal consecration on the following March 25, on November 22 that year he was elected general secretary of the Latin American Episcopal Conference at Sucre, Bolivia, a post he held until 1984. Organizing the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops in 1979, in which Pope John Paul II participated, that same year he was appointed coadjutor with right of succession of the archdiocese of Medellín, eventually succeeding on June 2, 1979. President of the Latin American Episcopal Council between 1979 and 1982, López Trujillo was created cardinal priest with the title of Santa Prisca by John Paul II in the consistory of February 2, 1983, becoming the then youngest member of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Named president of the Pontifical Council for the Family in 1990, assuming office the following year, he acted as president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia from 1987 till 1990. Resigning the pastoral government of the archdiocese of Medellín on January 9, 1991, the Cardinal was a hardline churchman who opposed condoms and abortion and through the years assumed an unwavering stance as a traditionalist, vehemently opposing the theology of liberation. Opting for the order of cardinal bishops and the suburbicarian see of Frascati on November 17, 2001, following a four-week hospitalization, he died after suffering cardiac arrest and respiratory problems on Saturday, April 19, 2008, in Rome, following acute complications from diabetes at the Clinica Pio XI in Rome, where he had been interned for a month. At the moment of his death, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, his brother, a nephew as well as other relatives and members of the Roman Curia were in his room. Upon learning the news of the death of the Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI, who was at St. Joseph's Seminary, New York, during his apostolic visit to the United States of America, sent a telegram of condolence to the late Cardinal's brother. In the morning of April 21, 2008, after the signing of the notary's act, the Cardinal's casket was taken to the church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini in the Vatican. His funeral mass took place on Wednesday April 23, 2008, at 11 am., in the altar of the chair of the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica, celebrated by Cardinal Sodano. Successively, the late Cardinal was buried in the church of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri in via di Porta Angelica, the parish church of the Vatican, which is under the care of the Augustinian Fathers. On May 15, 2017, his remains were transferred to Medellín, following a request from Pope Francis to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and there re-buried in the metropolitan cathedral.