Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer SJ (born 19 April 1944) is a Spanish Jesuit, theologian and a cardinal of the Catholic Church.

After attending the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid and the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Ladaria was ordained to the priesthood on 29 July 1973.

The Commission concluded, in his words, that "there are more appropriate ways to address the issue of the fate of children who die without having received baptism, for whom a hope of salvation cannot be ruled out.

"[2] On 9 July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Ladaria Ferrer the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and made him an archbishop[3] with the titular see of Thibica.

I believe that there is a via media, which is taken by the majority of professors of Theology in Rome and in the Church in general, which I think is the correct path to take.... Everyone is free to criticize and make the judgments they want.

[9] On 28 June 2018, Pope Francis made Ladaria a cardinal, assigning him the deaconry of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio.

[20] Cardinal Ladaria in 2018, announcing changes to the Catechism regarding capital punishment, said that it was consistent with Pope John Paul II's 1995 papal encyclical Evangelium Vitae and that the change "affirms that ending the life of a criminal as punishment for a crime is inadmissible because it attacks the dignity of the person, a dignity that is not lost even after having committed the most serious crimes".

The cardinal also said that the changes were a "decisive commitment to favor a mentality that recognizes the dignity of every human life" while calling for "respectful dialogue with civil authorities" to formulate conditions to eliminate capital punishment wherever it is still in effect.

[22] In a letter addressed to Brother René Stockman in 2017, Ladaria affirmed the Church's "adherence to the principles of the sacredness of human life and the unacceptability of euthanasia".

Ladaria addressed the letter in response to the practice of euthanasia in psychiatric hospitals of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity's Belgian branch.

[24] It stated that it is "impossible" for God to "bless sin" but the CDF did note the existence of some "positive elements" in the non-sexual aspects of same-sex relationships.