| Styles of Ricardo Ezzati |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Archbishop |
| Posthumous style | not applicable |
Ricardo Ezzati Andrello SDB (born 7 January 1942) is the Archbishop of Santiago since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 15 December 2010.[1] He was informed of the decision on 7 December 2010.[2] He had previously served as Archbishop of Concepción.
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Ezzati Andrello was born in Campiglia Berici, Vicenza, Italy. He arrived in Chile in 1959. He entered the Novitiate of the Salesians in Quilpué, Valparaíso where he studied philosophy at the Catholic University of Valparaíso, and theology at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, where he obtained the licentiate. He made his Final Vows as a Salesian on 30 December 1966 and was ordained as a priest of the Salesian order on 18 March 1970. After his ordination he received a Licentiate in Religious Studies at the Institut de Pastoral Catéchetique in Strasbourg and the title of Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Valparaíso.
As a Salesian priest of the Chilean province, he held the following positions: Director for Youth Ministry in the Salesian School in Valdivia, Director of Community for the Salesians in Concepcion, Chile, Member of the Provincial Council of the Chilean Salesians, Director of the Salesian Seminary of Santiago de Chile, and Inspector Provincial of the Salesians in Chile. He has also been a teacher in the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and Vice President of the Conference of Religious of Chile and has participated in the General Chapters of the Salesian Congregation in 1984 and 1990.
In 1991, he was appointed an official of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He was appointed as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Valdivia, Chile, on 28 June 1996, by the then-Holy Father Pope John Paul II. He was ordained to the episcopacy on 8 September 1996.
In an unusual (but not unprecedented) move, on 10 July 2001, he was appointed Titular Bishop of La Imperial and Auxiliary Bishop of the much larger Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. He served as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile until 27 December 2006, when he was appointed as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Concepción. In June 2009, Archbishop Ezzati Andrello was named by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, along with four other prelates, to be Apostolic Visitors to the Legionaries of Christ after the revelations of the alternative pedophiliac lifestyle of Father Marciel Maciel Degollado, the order's founder, and an associate of John Paul II. He will carry out the investigation of the order in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, where the Legion has 20 houses, 122 priests and 122 religious seminarians.
As the archbishop of Concepción, Ezzati Andrello played a crucial role in ending the 82-day hunger strike of 34 Mapuche prisoners,[3] which ended on 1 October 2010.
Pope Benedict appointed Ezzati Andrello as Metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, and as such, the de facto Primate of the Catholic Church in Chile. He replaced Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa, whose resignation was accepted having reached the canonical age limit of 75. Archbishop Ezzati Andrello took possession of the city of Santiago de Chile on 15 January 2011, during a mass at the Archdiocesan Cathedral. He received the pallium from Pope Benedict in Rome as a new Metropolitan Archbishop on 29 June 2011, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
It is thought that when Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa turns 80 years old and loses the right to participate in a papal conclave, there is a good chance that Archbishop Ezzati Andrello will then be named a Cardinal in a consistory. The Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile has an area of 9,132, an overall population of 5,791,000, a Catholic population of 4,019,000, 854 priests, 295 permanent deacons, and 3,100 religious.
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alejandro Jiménez Lafeble |
Bishop of Valdivia 28 June 1996–10 August 2001 |
Succeeded by Ignacio Francisco Ducasse Medina |
| Preceded by Antonio Moreno Casamitjana |
Archbishop of Concepción 27 December 2006–15 December 2010 |
Succeeded by Fernando Chomalí |
| Preceded by Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa |
Archbishop of Santiago 15 December 2010–incumbent |
Succeeded by incumbent |