Bruno Forte (born 1 August 1949) is an Italian Roman Catholic theologian and ecclesiastic, currently
Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto.
Biography
Archbishop Forte was born in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. He was ordained a priest on 18 April 1973. He studied at Tübingen University associated with Hans Küng, Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper. He also spent time in Paris, before gaining a
Laurea degree in philosophy from Naples University.
He was called "the most famous Italian
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
in Italy" and is seen as more progressive than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. At stake, he is considered an internationally prominent Italian theologian.
In 2000, he oversaw the preparation of the Vatican document, "Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past", which led to the famous liturgy in St Peter's Basilica in which John Paul II asked God's forgiveness for 2,000 years of sins. John Paul II asked him to preach the Vatican's Lenten Spiritual Exercises in 2004.
[
He was appointed as Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto by ]Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
on 26 June 2004. He was consecrated bishop by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
) on 8 September 2004; he is one of only 26 bishops consecrated by the former Pope.
After the election of Pope Benedict XVI Forte was seen by some as a possible successor to become Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible ...
, before William Levada
William Joseph Levada (June 15, 1936September 26, 2019) was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. From May 2005 until June 2012, he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI; he was the h ...
was chosen.
After the tomb of Jesus
The tomb of Jesus refers to any place where it is believed that Jesus was entombed or interred.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It contains, a ...
was supposedly uncovered by James Cameron, Archbishop Forte said that "there are many such tombs in the territory of the Holy Land. Hence, there is nothing new in this revelation." He went on to say that "In fact, the thesis launched is that if Jesus is buried there with his family, then the resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...
would be no more than an invention of his disciples." He then concluded by defending the historicity of the Jesus' Resurrection saying, "However, leaving to one side the inconsistency of the archaeological proof, which has been utterly contested by Israeli archaeologists, the factual event of Jesus' resurrection is rigorously documented in the New Testament by the five accounts of the apparitions: four of the Gospels and St. Paul's.
On 5 January 2011 he was appointed among the first members of the newly created Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation
The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization (Latin: ''Pontificium Consilium de Nova Evangelizatione''), also translated as Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, was a pontifical council of the Roman Curia whose cre ...
.
On Monday, 14 October 2013, the Archbishop was appointed by Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
to serve as the Special Secretary of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on "The challenges of the family in the context of evangelization", scheduled from 5–19 October 2014.
On Wednesday, 16 July 2014, Archbishop Forte was appointed by Pope Francis to serve a five-year term as a Consultant to the (for Religious).
In October 2014, Pope Francis added him to the group responsible for summarizing the first week of discussions at the Synod on the Family. According to John L. Allen, the resulting document was "widely known to carry the imprint of Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte, one of the more noted theological minds in the Italian hierarchy".
In November 2016, Mgr Forte was elected President of the Abruzzo and Molise
it, Molisano (man) it, Molisana (woman)
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regional
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
section of the Episcopal Conference of Italy. On 11 January 2021 he was succeeded by the cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi
Giuseppe Petrocchi (born 19 August 1948) 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 Asc ...
.
Forte approved the interreligious dialogue
Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is ...
amongst Roman Catholics and Lutherans
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...
, a relation which was put into act by the couple of leading theologians
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...
Hans Küng
Hans Küng (; 19 March 1928 – 6 April 2021) was a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author. From 1995 he was president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos).
Küng was ordained a priest in 1954, joined the faculty o ...
and Karl Barth.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Bruno
1949 births
Clergy from Naples
Living people
21st-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops
20th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians
Archbishops of Chieti
21st-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians
Members of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation