Fabián Pedacchio

Fabián Edgardo Marcelo Pedacchio Leániz known as Fabián Pedacchio (born 12 April 1964) is an Argentine priest of the Catholic Church who served from 2013 to 2019 as a personal secretary of Pope Francis. He works on the staff of the Congregation for Bishops where he worked from 2007 to 2013. Before that, in Argentina, he fulfilled assignments as a parish priest for fifteen years and served on church tribunals at the national level.

Fabián Pedacchio
Former Personal Secretary to Pope Francis
Fabián Pedacchio in 2016
DioceseRome
SeeHoly See
Installed2013
Term ended2019
SuccessorGonzalo Aemilius[1]
Orders
Ordination7 December 1992
Personal details
Born
Fabián Edgardo Marcelo Pedacchio Leániz

(1964-04-12) 12 April 1964
Buenos Aires, Argentina
NationalityArgentine (with Vatican citizenship)
DenominationCatholic Church

Argentina

Fabián Pedacchio was born on 12 April 1964 in Buenos Aires and raised in the barrio of Villa Luro. He studied economics and thought about raising a family before deciding to enter the seminary. He was ordained a priest on 7 December 1992 and through weekly telephone conversations developed a close relationship with his archbishop, Jorge Bergoglio, later Pope Francis.[2] From 1992 to 2007 he held a variety of assignments at six parishes. He also served for several years on two national ecclesiastical tribunals.[3] He is an expert in canon law. He became secretary of SADEC, the Argentinian Society for Canon Law.

Vatican

In 2007, Pope Francis, then Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, recommended Pedacchio for a position on the staff of the Congregation for Bishops. At the time, Bergoglio's suggested candidates for appointments as bishop were being blocked by the Nuncio to Argentina, Adriano Bernardini.[4] A conservative website reported in December 2011 an anonymous characterization of Pedacchio as "a spy of Cardinal Bergoglio in Rome".[5] On 18 August 2012 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him a chaplain of His Holiness with the title monsignor.[6]

Pope Francis

Shortly after Bergoglio was elected pope in March 2013, Pedacchio moved to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican residence where Pope Francis had decided to live. He began collaborating part-time with Pope Francis, while keeping his post of secretary clerk second class at the Congregation for Bishops. He was officially the second secretary to Pope Francis.[7] In June 2013, he told an interviewer: "I want to keep a low profile. I'm doing my best to attend to the Holy Father, without revealing anything of Pope Francis' private life."[2] He became the first secretary in March 2014 when Alfred Xuereb became Secretary General of the Secretariat for the Economy.[8][9] Yoannis Lahzi Gaid was appointed as the new second secretary.[9]

In November 2019, Vatican press secretary Matteo Bruni announced that Pedacchio is returning soon to the Congregation for Bishops full time.[10] On 26 January 2020, he was succeeded by Uruguayan priest Rev. Gonzalo Aemilius.[11][12]

Personal

Pedacchio says he dated girls in his youth. He maintained a profile on the social website Badoo.[13] He is an avid supporter of River Plate and likes Gabriel García Márquez's novels and Pedro Almodóvar's films.[2][4]

References
  1. "Father Aemilius is the Pope's new Personal Secretary - Vatican News". 26 January 2020.
  2. Gagliarducci, Andrea (19 July 2013). "Pope Francis' shadow: Monsignor Pedacchio Leaniz". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  3. "Sr. Pbro. Pedacchi Leaniz, Fabian Edgardo M." Archdiocese of Buenos Aires (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  4. Gagliarducci, Andrea (30 June 2013). "Pope Francis, time to make decisions". MondayVatican. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  5. "Los peones de Bergoglio" [Bergoglio's pawns]. intereconomia.com. 26 December 2011. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  6. "Cappellani di Sua Santità" [Chaplains of His Holiness] (PDF), Acta Apostolicae Sedis (in Italian), Rome: Vatican, 105 (6): 543, 2013
  7. Tosatti, Marco (18 October 2013). "Who advises the Pope?". La. Retrieved 28 November 2019. Who does he listen to? One of these figures is Mgr. Fabiàn Pedacchio Leaniz, an official of the Congregation of Bishops and unofficial but highly efficient private secretary to the Pope, a bit like – mutatis mutandis of course - what Stanislao Dziwisz was to John Paul II.
  8. "Rinunce e Nomine, 28.11.2013" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  9. Tornielli, Andrea (17 April 2014). "Coptic priest joins Francis' personal secretariat". Vatican Insider. Retrieved 28 November 2019. As is known, for Francis, the ideal personal secretary acts as an invisible figure. He never follows the Pope and almost never accompanies him in public but most importantly, he does not manage the Pope's agenda for him, deciding who he does and doesn't meet.
  10. "Pope's personal secretary to leave his position". Vatican News. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  11. "Father Aemilius is the Pope's new Personal Secretary". Vatican News. 26 January 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  12. O'Connell, Gerard (26 January 2020). "Pope Francis names new secretary: a priest who worked with street children and drug addicts". America. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  13. Ariza, Gabriel (2 October 2013). "¿Quién es… Fabián Pedacchio Leániz?" [Who is... Fabian Pedacchio Leániz?]. Infovaticana (in Spanish).
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