Gianfranco Ghirlanda

Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J. (born 5 July 1942) is an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Biography

Gianfranco Ghirlanda was born on 5 July 1942 in Rome.^[1]

Ghirlanda received a laurea in jurisprudence from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1966. Though he worked for Fiat while earning his degree, he entered the Society of Jesus upon his graduation; he was ordained a priest in 1973. He earned a bachelor's degree in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University the year of his ordination, and earned a Licentiate in Canon Law in 1975. He also earned a Doctorate in Canon Law summa cum laude in 1978.^[1]

Ghirlanda has taught courses in canon law in various faculties of the Gregorian since 1975. In 1986 he became a full professor and served as Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law from 1995 to 2004. He has served the Holy See as a consultor of various congregations and councils, and has been a judge of the Court of Appeal in Vatican City from 1993 to 2003. He has published books on canon law, and approximately 110 articles in various publications.^[1]

He was appointed to the position of rector of the Gregorian University on 1 September 2004 by Pope John Paul II.^[1]

On Thursday, July 3, 2014, in an announcement letter sent to members from Father Eduardo Robles Gil, the recently elected (February 2014) Superior General of the Legionaries of Christ, it was made known that Father Ghirlanda had been appointed special advisor to the newly reformed Catholic religious order by Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz and Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, respectively Prefect and Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (the dicastery, or department, of the Roman Curia which oversees Catholic religious orders). The Legionaries order had been led until 2005 by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado—who had had close high-level friends in the Church and been backed by Pope John Paul II, but was later found to have been a pedophile abuser since the 1940s—and had just finished its reforms under the Vatican-appointed administrator Cardinal Velasio de Paolis.^[2]

References