Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, ordained Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, to the episcopate on June 21.
The ordination Mass took place at a Marian shrine in Padua, where, as a seminarian, the future prelate provided voluntary medical care to persons with disabilities. (Pegoraro studied medicine before entering seminary.)
Courage “does not spring spontaneously from our own fearless spirit; rather, it is anchored in the unshakable certainty that the lives of Jesus’ disciples are guarded by the Father’s unfailing faithfulness,” Cardinal Parolin preached. “Jesus is certain that God is the jealous guardian of human life and knows that no human force can tear it away from His care.”
Born in 1959 and ordained a priest of the Diocese of Padua in 1989, Pegoraro was named chancellor of the pontifical academy in 2011 and its president in May 2025, shortly after Pope Leo’s election.