Giuseppe Petrocchi


Giuseppe Petrocchi is an Italian Roman Catholic prelate who has served as the Archbishop of L'Aquila since 2013. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018.

Life

Giuseppe Petrocchi was born on 19 August 1948 in Ascoli Piceno.
Petrocchi commenced his ecclesial studies in his home diocese on 4 October 1965 where he finished his high school education before being sent to the Pontifico Seminario Romano Maggiore in September 1967. He completed his studies at the Lateran where he obtained a bachelor's degree before doing additional studies at the college in Rome and the one in Macerata.
He was ordained to the priesthood on 14 September 1973 in the San Pietro Martire church and began work as a teacher and pastor. Pope John Paul II appointed him as the Bishop of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno on 27 June 1998 and he received his episcopal consecration the following 20 September in Ascoli Piceno from Silvano Montevecchi; the co-consecrators were the bishops Domenico Pecile and Marcello Morgante. He was installed in his new diocese on 18 October.
Pope Francis named him as the Archbishop of L'Aquila on 8 June 2013 and he was enthroned in his new see the following month. He received the pallium from the pope on 29 June 2013 in Saint Peter's Basilica. Pope Francis made Petrocchi a cardinal on 28 June 2018, assigning him the titular church of San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini.
Francis named him a member of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State on 22 September 2018, of the Congregation for Catholic Education on 6 October 2018, and of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 27 April 2019. In April 2020 Francis placed Petrocchi at the head of a commission that was to study the question of the ordination of women to the diaconate.