Pope appoints Archbishop Pizzaballa Patriarch of Jerusalem

Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., as the Patriarch of Jerusalem on Saturday. He was serving as Apostolic Administrator sede vacante of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem since June 2016.

His Beatitude was born in 1965 in Cologno al Serio in Italy, in the Diocese and Province of Bergamo.

He entered the Franciscan Cristo Re province in 1976 and made his first profession of vows in 1985, followed by his perpetual profession in 1989, and was ordained a priest in 1990.

He holds a Bachelors degree in theology from the Pontifical Antonianum University, Rome, and completed his studies in the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem. He subsequently served as professor of biblical Hebrew at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical and Archaeological Sciences of Jerusalem.

The new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem began his service in the Custody of the Holy Land in 1999 and in 2011 was appointed as Guardian of the Convent of Sts. Simeon and Anna in Jersualem. He served as patriarchal vicar from 2003 to 2008. The General Definitorium appointed him as Custos of the Holy Land and Guardian of Mount Zion in 2004, a role he fulfilled until April 2016.

His Beatitude is also a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.