The Pope and the new Patriarch of Venice

From Sandro Magister of Chiesa:

Born in Genoa on May 25 59 years ago, he was ordained a priest on June 29, 1977, by Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, with whom he became assistant pastor, and in 1986 he became a professor of theology at the Institute for Religious Studies of Liguria. With Siri’s successor, Cardinal Giovanni Canestri, he became in 1989 a professor in the Genoese section of the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, in 1990 a diocesan assistant with the MEIC, and in 1994 the president of the aforementioned institute for religious studies. With Canestri’s successor, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, in 1996 he became director of the diocesan office for culture. With Tettamanzi’s successor, Tarcisio Bertone, in 2004 he became a canon of the metropolitan chapter of the cathedral of San Lorenzo. In 2007, when he was appointed bishop of La Spezia, he was consecrated bishop in Genoa on February 3, 2008 by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa and president of the CEI, and Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, now cardinal prefect of the congregation for the clergy, who has always followed Moraglia’s ecclesiastical career very closely.

Bagnasco, with a decree of April 23, 2010, appointed Moraglia president of the administrative board of the foundation “Communication and Culture,” which oversees the television channel of the CEI, TV 2000, directed by Dino Boffo.

In short, Moraglia has drawn a rare convergence of consensus among personalities who in other respects are not always in harmony with each other, like the cardinals Bagnasco and Bertone. As well as other cardinals consulted, like Carlo Caffarra, Camillo Ruini, Angelo Scola, and Crescenzio Sepe.

But the new patriarch of Venice is also respected by the elderly but still clear-minded cardinal Giacomo Biffi, who although he does not know him from up close had spent all of his substantial authoritativeness with pope Ratzinger to promote him as archbishop of Milan – Moraglia still has Ambrosian blood in his veins, from his mother’s side – with a heartfelt letter that made a big impression in the other halls of the Apostolic Palace.

Moraglia can be defined without the shadow of a doubt as “Ratzingerian,” in both theology and liturgy. He is a man of culture, but always attentive to making the presence of the Church felt alongside the world of work, with special attention to the weakest sectors, following in this a tradition that comes down from Siri. So in January of 2009, he could be seen in his impeccable episcopal garments, holding a megaphone to speak with the workers of a factory who had mobilized to defend their jobs (in the photo).

Read the entire report.