VATICAN CITY/ITALY
Chiesa
He is Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco. Benedict XVI wants him to lead the bishops for five more years. And it is the only case in the world in which this appointment is made by the pope, in spite of the contrary opinion approved in a vote years ago by the episcopal conference
VATICAN CITY, March 7, 2012 – The announcement could be made as soon as today, exactly five years after the first appointment. Benedict XVI has decided to confirm for another five-year term Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the archbishop of Genoa, who turned 69 on January 14, as president of the Italian episcopal conference.
This means that when the Ligurian cardinal comes to the end of this new mandate, he will become the second-longest-serving president of the CEI. Surpassing Cardinal Antonio, who left office after 9 years and 7 months, and putting himself on the trail of the statistically unreachable Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who led the Italian episcopate for 16 years, from March 4, 1991 to March 7, 2007, when, having passed the age of 76, Benedict XVI accepted his resignation, appointing Bagnasco in his place.
Unlike what happens in almost all the episcopal conferences of the world, in Italy the presidency is not elective, but of pontifical appointment. And this because the pope is the bishop of Rome and the primate of Italy.
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