Felice Accrocca


Felice Accrocca is an Italian ordinary of the Catholic Church and the current Archbishop of Benevento. As the head of the Ecclesiastical Province of Benevento, Accrocca is the metropolitan for the neighboring suffragan dioceses.

Biography

Felice Accrocca was born on 2 December 1959 in Cori, in the province of Latina, in the region of Lazio. He studied at the seminary of the Pontifical College Leoniano in Anagni. He was then ordained a priest in the Diocese of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno on 12 June 1986. Following ordination, he became an associate pastor at the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Cisterna di Latina. In 1989, he became a parish priest at the Church of Saint Luke in Latina, where he remained until 2004. He was then transferred to the Church of Saint Pius X, also in Latina. Finally, he was appointed a parish priest at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Latina in 2012.
He was also the coordinator of the diocese's lay groups, managing editor of the monthly diocese magazine "Chiesa Pontina," and was the episcopal vicar for pastoral affairs.
Accrocca was also a professor of medieval history at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he furthered his studies of the medieval Franciscans, publishing numerous essays.

Episcopal ministry

On 18 February 2016, Pope Francis appointed Accrocca Archbishop of Benevento, succeeding Andrea Mugione who retired due to age. On 15 May he was consecrated a bishop by Mariano Crociata, Bishop of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno and co-consecrators Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi and Archbishop Andrea Mugione. He was installed on 12 June and received his pallium as metropolitan from Pope Francis on 29 June in St. Peter's Basilica.
He chose as his episcopal motto Nisi dominus ædificaverit, the opening verse of.

Works