Ecuador’s president and first lady, Daniel Noboa and Lavinia Valbonesi, tragically lost their third baby to pregnancy complications.
Ecuador’s bishops sent a message of consolation and hope to Ecuador’s president and first lady after the tragic loss of their third baby, Stefano, to pregnancy complications.
Their message of comfort reflected the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the unborn while assuring the presidential family and all those who have lost a child before birth of their prayers and closeness. In the message, the bishops asked God to welcome Stefano’s soul into His mercy “and to grant his parents and his entire family the comfort that only faith can offer in moments of such deep sorrow.”
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, and First Lady, Lavinia Valbonesi, married in 2021. Before becoming First Lady, Valbonesi was a well-known social media influencer who shared popular content about health and nutrition, while Noboa was one of the youngest heads of state in the world when he took office in 2023 at age 35. The couple has two older sons, Álvaro and Furio Noboa Valbonesi, born in 2022 and 2024. Noboa also has a daughter from a previous relationship.
While the details are private, Minister of Government Nataly Morillo publicly communicated that the first lady underwent emergency surgery due to a pregnancy complication and that baby Stefano passed away August 15. For three days after his death, the flag at the Carondelet Palace remained at half-mast.
In their statement, the bishops echoed the Church’s position that human life in the womb is “a gift and blessing from God, worthy of being welcomed, protected and loved from its very first moment.” Pope Leo XIV has reaffirmed this position, encouraging “spiritual adoption of the unborn” and writing in Magnifica Humanitas that every human being has dignity “simply by virtue of existing, of having been willed, created and loved by God.”
Ecuador is a traditionally Catholic nation, with about 89% of the population being Catholic, and abortion is illegal there except in cases when the pregnancy poses a risk to the life or health of the mother and in cases of rape. The bishops also affirmed their unity with all families suffering the loss of an unborn child.
Read the bishops' full statement below:
The Conference of Ecuadorian Bishops Statement on the Death of Stefano Noboa Valbonesi
The Ecuadorian Bishops’ Conference joins in profound sorrow with the presidential family, the President of the Republic, Daniel Noboa, and the First Lady, Lavinia Valbonesi, following the tragic death of their son, Stefano Noboa Valbonesi.
As shepherds of the Ecuadorian people, we raise our prayers to the Lord of Life, asking that, in his mercy, he receive the soul of this little child and grant his parents and his entire family the consolation that only faith can offer in moments of such profound sadness.
We echo the constant teaching of the Church, reaffirmed by the Holy Father Leo XIV, concerning human life that develops in the maternal womb as a gift and blessing from God, worthy of being welcomed, protected and loved from its very first moment, even when that moment coincides with the moment of farewell.
In this moment of sorrow, our thoughts and prayers also extend to all Ecuadorian families who, like the presidential family, have experienced the loss of a child before or shortly after birth. To them we say that they are not alone: the Church accompanies them, recognizes the value of that brief but real life, and entrusts all those children to the embrace of the Father.
We invite all the faithful and the national community to accompany the First Lady and the President of the Republic in prayer during this difficult time, trusting that Christian hope illuminates even the most painful losses.
We entrust Stefano to the tenderness of God the Father and ask the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and of all who suffer, to intercede for this family and for all those who today share this same sorrow.
