Archbishop Gugerotti appointed a new governor for the Eastern Churches

Charlotta Smedes – Vatican City

Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti to head the Department of Eastern Churches. The change is taking place after fifteen years with Cardinal Leonardo Sandri as governor at the recently 79-year-old. Pope Benedict XVI entrusted Cardinal Sandri with the position of governor in June 2007, and Pope Francis confirmed it in 2014. The cardinal will end his service as governor in mid-January when Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, 67, takes over.

Studies and teaching

Archbishop Gugerotti comes from Verona and was ordained in 1982. At Ca’ Foscari University in Venice he received a degree in Oriental Languages ​​and Literatures and a licentiate in Liturgy. He then took a degree in liturgy from the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo and wrote a doctoral dissertation in Eastern Ecclesiastical Theology at the Pontifical Seminary Oriental. He teaches at the universities of Venice, Padua and Rome, as well as at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

Service as an ambassador

Archbishop Gogroti formerly of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, which today bears the name Dekar of the Eastern Churches, has been in his extensive ministry to the Holy See since 1985. In 1997, Pope John Paul II appointed him Vicar of the Congregation. He served as an advisor to the Pontifical Office for Liturgy and Ceremonies from 1990 to 2001, when he was appointed Archbishop of Ravello by the Pope. Consecrated bishop by John Paul II in 2002.

After that he served as Apostolic Nuncio to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In 2011, Benedict XVI elected him ambassador to Belarus. In 2020, Pope Francis sent him to Ukraine in 2015 as an ambassador, and then transferred him to the United Kingdom in 2020.