Cum Maria Matre Iesu (Latin for 'With Mary the Mother of Jesus')
Coat of arms
Francesco Moraglia (born 25 May 1953) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been Patriarch of Venice since March 2012; he is the first native of Genoa to hold that position. He was bishop of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato from 2008 to 2012.
Francesco Moraglia was born to a wealthy family[2] in Genoa on 25 May 1953. His father Enrico was a lawyer.[3][a] His mother Elena Cazzaniga, originally from Villasanta in Brianza, earned a degree in literature at the Catholic University of Milan and taught high school before leaving to raise their four children, two boys and two girls.[5][6][b]
He attended public high school and then studied for the priesthood at the seminary in Genoa. Cardinal Giuseppe Siri ordained him a priest of the Archdiocese of Genoa[3] on 29 June 1977.[7]
In 1977–1979 he worked as educator and accompanist of theologians (III-IV-V theology) at the Major Archiepiscopal Seminary.[8] From 1979 to 1988 he was assistant pastor in a parish in the city center.[7]
After obtaining a licentiate at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, since 1979 he has been teaching dogmatic theology at the Genoa section of the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy. In 1981 he obtained a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Urban University. Since 1986 he has been teaching Fundamental Dogmatic Theology and Sacramental Theology at the Ligurian Higher Institute of Religious Sciences, an institute of which he was dean from 1 December 1994 to 2007. In 1989 he also took up the position of professor of Christology, Anthropology and Sacramentary at the Genoa section of the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy. In 1995 he was elected president of the diocesan commission for the pastoral problems of alternative religious movements and sects, while in 1996 he was appointed director of the diocesan office for culture and university.
He received his episcopal ordination on 3 February 2008[9] in the cathedral of Genoa from Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, assisted by Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy and Bishop Staffieri, his predecessor in La Spezia.[citation needed] On 1 March he took possession of the diocese.[8]
In 2008 he inaugurated the practice of diocesan Marian pilgrimages on the first Saturday of the month. The tradition was explicitly referred by him to the prescription of the first of the Secrets of Fátima, to dedicate the first Saturday to the Reparatory Communion.[10] On 10 January 2010 he announced his pastoral visit, while between 23 and 24 April of the same year he presided over the two diocesan days on the educational challenge.
From 23 April 2010 to 2013 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Communication and Culture Foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference, which manages its media initiatives.[8][11]
When La Spezia and Lunigiana suffered catastrophic flooding in October 2011, he visited the affected areas and sent his seminarians to assist relief efforts. He said: "These events are a school of life.... They will learn something true and real."[11][12] As bishop of La Spezia, he took positions in support of unemployed workers at the former San Giorgio appliance factory and participated in several trade union demonstrations to make it clear he shared the workers' concerns.[2]
Patriarch of Venice
On the day of entry into the patriarchate (25 March 2012)Meeting with engaged couples and young spouses
On 31 January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Patriarch of Venice.[9][c][d] He was the first Genoese ever appointed patriarch of Venice.[3][14] He was installed in Venice on 25 March.[citation needed] He received his pallium, the symbol of his role as a metropolitan, in St. Peter's Basilica on 29 June.[15] Upon his appointment to Venice, his elevation to cardinal at the next consistory was predicted.[3] When Pope Francis instead demonstrated a preference for sees not traditionally headed by a cardinal, the absence of Venice was noted,[16] though it was also pointed out that "the current archbishops of both Venice and Turin are generally seen as members of the conservative wing of the Italian church".[17] Another analysis finds him squarely in the model of Pope Francis' cardinals, especially in his concern for migrants and relations with Islam.[2]
He has been president of the Triveneto Episcopal Conference since he was elected to his first five-year term on 29 May 2012,[18] consequently he is grand chancellor of the Theological Faculty of Triveneto which is based in Padua. He was re-elected president of that Conference on 16 May 2017[19] and 10 May 2022.[20][21][22]
On 18 September 2012, Pope Benedict included him on his list of papal appointees to participate in the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization in October.[23]
In Venice he continued to maintain a simple lifestyle,[2] announcing that any furniture he needed could be found at IKEA[24] and using only a Volkswagen Golf for transportation on the mainland as needed.[25][26] He acted quickly to reduce administrative costs of the archdiocese, closing offices in the Calle degli Albanesi in the spring of 2013 and closing a high school.[27]
In July 2014, he radically downsized the Studium Generale Marcianum, an education and research institute, established by his predecessor Angelo Scola. Since its founding in 2004, the Marcianum required financial support from private entities, and this produced a crisis when, in June 2014, a widespread scandal involving financial irregularities and bribery related to the MOSE hydraulic project involved one of the Marcianum's principal sponsors. Moraglia used the occasion to review the Marcianum anew in light of the pressures it placed on Church finances and the way corporate support placed inevitable restraints on its freedom. In July he announced the entire complex would be dismantled, with provision made for students who needed to complete their degree programs and for the needs of displaced employees. He took this action after Scola declined to provide financial support and having coordinated his decision with officials of the Roman Curia and informed Pope Francis.[28][29][30]
He established the practice of weekday visits to each of the 128 parishes of the lagoon diocese[31][32] which begins the week after its entry and completes in December 2014,[33] celebrating Mass and meeting the faithful in the daily life of the weekdays[34][35] It establishes, as already in La Spezia, the practice of diocesan Marian pilgrimages on the first Saturday of the month. On 26 October 2013 he started the mission of street evangelizers giving eighty boys the mandate to reach the pockets of greatest degradation of the diocese.[36][37][38] It dedicates particular pastoral care to those in conditions of greater fragility, both personal (young people, prisoners, women victims of violence) and linked to the economic crisis that marks the diocesan territory[39][40][41][42][43][44] and strengthens the structures of Caritas.[45]
In 2016 he reorganized the patriarchate, organizing its 128 parishes into 40 groupings or "pastoral alliances" based on geographic access that supports collaboration.[46][47][48] He initiated a series of pastoral visits to provoke these collaborations to action.[49][50]
He has dedicated his four pastoral letters to social issues: "I know in whom I have placed my faith" (14 October 2012);[51] "The Christian faith in a context of widespread secularization" (2 February 2013); "Invitation to the Social Doctrine of the Church" (1 May 2013);[52][53] and "Family and city of men. Society, work and the common good" (15 October 2013).[54][55][56]
Venice suffered a series of record floods in 2018/19, which prompted Moraglia to use his annual sermon on the feast of the Madonna della Salute and a series of interviews to rouse the government and public opinion to action.[57] He called for "a different model of development" designed for its citizens: "It cannot remain a Disneyland that has been sold off to tourists." He demanded "effective action plans" from officials he found disconnected from the city's shrinking population who "suffer not because they are losing everything, but because of the feeling of being abandoned". He said saving the exhausted residents needed to take priority over the city's artistic treasures. He called for banning visits by transatlantic liners and an end to "the suffocating onslaught of tourists", an end to corruption that leaves the city at risk of destruction. He hoped for urgent recognition that Venice "can no longer be entrusted to occasional funding and distracted policies". And underpinning his views was a call for respect for nature and "the alarms of the disturbed climate".[58][59]
In June 2019, he attacked the Salvini government's immigration policies, called welcoming refugees "a duty", and characterized the construction of physical barriers as "illusory" and "out of touch with reality". He has also cooperated with the Muslim community of Venice in welcoming refugees from the former concentration camp in Cornetta.[2]
In 2020 he appointed women to two positions previously reserved to men. In July 2020 he appointed Sister Simone Pereira de Araújo, FGC diocesan treasurer.[60][e] In October 2020, he appointed Laura Friselle, an attorney, president of the Board of Directors of the Opera Santa Maria della Carità, a foundation that operates a public health agency that supports people with disabilities and a variety of addiction health issues.[61]
↑ On 11 March 2012, he said his farewells to the diocese of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato.[13]
↑ The patriarch of Venice is ex officio grand chancellor of the Faculty of Canon Law "San Pio X" of Venice and holds the honorary title of primate of Dalmatia.
↑ Born in 1972 in Porto Feliz in Brazil, Pereira joined the Daughters of San Giuseppe del Caburlotto in 1995. She earned degrees in pedagogy and religious sciences in São Paulo and then studied at the Faculty of Canon Law "San Pio X" in Venice from 2006 to 2012, obtaining a licentiate and a doctorate in canon law. She then held positions within her order in Brazil and in July 2016 became vicar to the provincial superior. From 2017 to 2020, she lived in Venice, working as councilor and general secretary of her order and lecturing on canon law.[60]
Related Research Articles
The provinces of Italy are the second-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, on an intermediate level between a municipality and a region. Since 2015, provinces have been classified as "institutional bodies of second level".
Giambattista Pittoni or Giovanni Battista Pittoni was a Venetian painter of the late Baroque or Rococo period. He was among the founders of the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, of which in 1758 he became the second president, succeeding Tiepolo.
Franco Rocchetta is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, philologist and history populariser, who is usually described as the "father" of present-day Venetian nationalism and independentism.
Venetian nationalism is a nationalist, but primarily regionalist, political movement active mostly in Veneto, Italy, as well as in other parts of the former Republic of Venice.
The Diocese of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Liguria, northern Italy, created in 1929. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Genoa.
Associazione Calcio Mestre is an Italian association football club located in Mestre, Venice, Veneto. It currently plays in Serie D, the fourth tier of the Italian league system. Its colours are orange and black.
The Domini di Terraferma was the hinterland territories of the Republic of Venice beyond the Adriatic coast in Northeast Italy. They were one of the three subdivisions of the Republic's possessions, the other two being the original Dogado (Duchy) and the Stato da Màr.
The Venice Marathon is a marathon road race that has been held each year in Venice since 1986, usually in October. The course starts in Stra and passes through Mestre, Parco San Giuliano, and Ponte della Libertà before ending at Riva dei Sette Martiri in Venice. The marathon is categorized as a Bronze Label Road Race by World Athletics.
The Venetian Most Serene Government, whose members are often referred to as Serenissimi, is a political organization active in Veneto. The group's goal is independence and self-government for Venetian lands and it is a bulwark of Venetian nationalism.
Renato Martin is an Italian politician.
Francesco Barbaro (1546–1616) was a Venetian aristocrat, ambassador and, from 1593 to his death, Patriarch of Aquileia.
Gianfranco Bettin is an Italian sociologist and long-time leader of the Greens in Veneto.
The Studium Generale Marcianum was a complex of educational institutions established in Venice in 2004 by the Patriarchate of Venice to provide educational services at all levels from secondary school through post-graduate programs, including a faculty of theology, as well as research services and cultural programming in the manner of an interdisciplinary research institution. The Marcianum Foundation was founded in 2008 to support these programs and such ancillary projects as facilities management and library services.
Venetian Independence is a Venetist, liberal and, to some extent, libertarian political party active in Veneto. The party seeks to achieve full political independence for the former territories of the Venetian Republic from Italy through a referendum. IV, which functions also as an advocacy group, counts a handful of municipal councillors and has not been represented yet in the Regional Council of Veneto.
Vincenzo Pipino, also known as Encio, is an Italian thief from Venice whose exploits earned him the nickname "the gentleman thief". He is the first person to successfully steal from the Doge's Palace, and has been responsible for some of the most sensational art thefts in the city.
Gianluca Forcolin is a Venetist politician from Veneto, Italy.
Impresa di Costruzioni Ing. E. Mantovani known as Ing. E. Mantovani is an Italian construction company based in Padua, Veneto. The company was found by engineer Enzo Mantovani, but was purchased by Serenissima Holding, a holding company for Chiarotto family. Serenissima Holding also owned FIP Group, which FIP Industriale supplied 8 viscous dampers for the tuned mass damper of Taipei 101.
Venetian Left is a social-democratic and green political party in Veneto, embracing pro-Europeanism, internationalism, as well as Venetian nationalism and separatism. Its first leaders were Matteo Visonà Dalla Pozza and Giovanni Masarà. Its current leaders are Antonella Muzzolon and Matteo Visonà Dalla Pozza. The party is a member of the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAY).
Guglielmo Berchet was an Italian patriot and historian. With regards to the latter, most of his works were related to the history of Venice.
Benvenuto Francesco Pesce Maineri was an Italian architect, engineer, and urban planner, known for his contributions to the Art Nouveau and Eclecticism styles in Italy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
↑ Virginia Casarin (2 November 2013). "Pregate insieme ai vostri bambini". Gente Veneta.
↑ Daniela e Mario Vettorelli (12 October 2013). "Chirignago - il Patriarca ha visitato lunedì 7 ottobre la comunità di S. Giorgio. "Si evangelizza nella quotidianità"". Gente Veneta.
↑ Francesco Catalano (2 November 2013). "Ottanta ragazzi in calle ad annunciare il Vangelo". Gente Veneta. p.11.
Luca Colombo; Paolo Colombatti; Marco Madini (30 November 2019). "Venezia, l'acqua alta e una città da salvare". In Marco Pacifico (ed.). Intervista al Patriarca Moraglia. TGR Veneto. 3:31 minutes in.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
