Paolo Pezzi

Paolo Pezzi FSCB ( born August 8, 1960 in Russi, Emilia -Romagna ) is an Italian priest and religious Roman Catholic Archbishop of Moscow, and Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of the same name. Since 2011 he has also been President of the Russian Bishops' Conference.

Life

Paolo Pezzi studied from 1985 to 1990 Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. On 22 December 1990 he received the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo ordained a priest in Rome by Cardinal Ugo Poletti. After a PhD in Pastoral Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University, he was with the work " Catholics in Siberia - today origins, persecution," PhD. Since 1993 he has been active in Russia.

From 1993 to 1998 Pezzi was Director of the Catholic Church newspaper and Dean in the Apostolic Administration of West Siberia (since 2002 Diocese of the Transfiguration of Novosibirsk ). From 1998 to 2005 he was Vicar General of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St.. Charles Borromeo ( FSCB ) involved in the religious line. In parallel, he took over the leadership of the movement Communion and Liberation for Russia. 2004 Pezzi professor at the Seminary " Mary Queen of Apostles " in Saint-Petersburg, from 2006 the rain.

2007 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him. Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God of Moscow. He received his episcopal consecration on 27 October 2007 his predecessor and current Archbishop of Minsk - Mohilev, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz; Co-consecrators were Joseph Werth SJ, Bishop of the Diocese of the Transfiguration of Novosibirsk, Archbishop Antonio Mennini and, Apostolic Nuncio in Russia.

On 21 January 2011, he was elected President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Russia.

He is the first Grand Prior of the Order of the Knights province of Russia Order of the Holy grave in Jerusalem.

Utterances

In a sermon to visit the pilgrimage on 13 October 2011 in Fatima (Portugal ), he said: The tendency is that " totalitarian powers" the religious dimension in society suppress, which means that "the powerful of this world everything God does honor to hate. "

Paolo Pezzi said further that " it is no coincidence that every totalitarian power follows the main purpose to wipe out the people's living memory of the history and religion.