The Italian Episcopal Conference ( it, Conferenza Episcopale Italiana) or CEI is the

episcopal conference An episcopal conference, sometimes called a conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The first assembly of bishops to ...

of the Italian

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

s of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, the official assembly of the bishops in Italy. The conference was founded in 1971 and carries out certain tasks and has the authority to set the liturgical norms for the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

. Episcopal conferences receive their authority under universal law or particular mandates. Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti was appointed its president 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. ...

in 2017. It is the only episcopal conference for which the pope appoints the president and secretary-general. In almost all other conferences the president is elected, while the secretary-general is elected in all others. At the beginning of his papacy in 2013, Pope Francis considered having the CEI membership elect its own president and secretary-general, a proposal that was once considered and abandoned 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 ...

. In 2017, adopting a new procedure, the CEI members elected three candidates for president and submitted them to the pope, who was free to choose one of them or someone else. Pope Francis repeatedly urged the CEI bishops to organize a national synod as discussed at their conference in Florence in 2015, first through surrogates and then himself inviting them to undertake a synod, eventually telling them in January 2021 that it was their duty and the time had come. The conference leadership submitted their synod proposal to him a month later. A

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

version of the Bible in Italian is published by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana. The conference established Italy's first national day of prayer for survivors of clerical sexual abuse on 18 November 2021.

Leadership

;Presidents *

Ildefonso Schuster Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster OSB (, ; 18 January 1880 – 30 August 1954), born Alfredo Ludovico Schuster, was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Benedictines who served as the Archbishop of Milan from 1929 until his d ...

(1952–1953) *

Adeodato Giovanni Piazza Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, O.C.D. (30 September 1884 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian friar of the Discalced Carmelite Order, who became a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and Patriarch of Venice, as well as a member of the Roman Curi ...

(1953–1954) * Maurilio Fossati (1954–1958) *

Giuseppe Siri Giuseppe Siri (20 May 1906 – 2 May 1989) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Genoa from 1946 to 1987, and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1953. He was a protege of Pope Pius XII. He was considered ...

(1959–1965) *A temporary committee of cardinals with collective presidency: Giovanni Colombo,

Ermenegildo Florit Ermenegildo Florit (5 July 1901 – 8 December 1985) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Florence from 1962 to 1977, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. Biography Ermenegildo Florit was born ...

, Giovanni Urbani (1965–1966) *Giovanni Urbani (1966–1969) * Antonio Poma (1969–1979) *

Anastasio Ballestrero Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero (3 October 1913 – 21 June 1998) - in religious Anastasio del Santissimo Rosario - was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and professed member from the Discalced Carmelites who served as the Archbishop of Turin ...

(1979–1985) *

Ugo Poletti Ugo Poletti (19 April 1914 – 25 February 1997) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Vicar General of Rome from 1973 to 1991, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973. Biography Born in Omegna, Poletti studied ...

(1985–1991) *

Camillo Ruini Camillo Ruini (; born 19 February 1931) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was made a cardinal in 1991. He served as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference from 1991 to 2007 and as Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome fr ...

(1991–2007) * Angelo Bagnasco (2007–2017) * Gualtiero Bassetti (2017 – 2022) *

Matteo Zuppi Matteo Maria Zuppi (born 11 October 1955) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Archbishop of Bologna since 12 December 2015. He was previously an auxiliary bishop of Rome from 2012 to 2015. Pope Francis raised him to the ra ...

(24 May 2022 - present) ;Secretaries-General The official that deals with the day-to-day affairs of the Conference is the secretary-general. *

(28 June 1986 – 7 March 1991) * Dionigi Tettamanzi (14 March 1991 – 20 April 1995) * Ennio Antonelli (26 May 1995 – 5 April 2001) *

Giuseppe Betori Giuseppe Betori (born 25 February 1947 in Foligno, Italy) is an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the archbishop of Florence and the former Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Early life He was ordained a pries ...

(5 April 2001 – 8 September 2008) * Mariano Crociata (25 September 2008 – 19 November 2013) * Nunzio Galantino (30 December 2013 – 26 June 2018) * Stefano Russo (28 September 2018 – 5 July 2022) * Giuseppe Baturi (5 July 2022 – present)

Notes

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Christian organizations established in 1971 Catholic Church in Italy

Leadership

See also

Notes

References

External links