Fabián Edgardo Marcelo Pedacchio Leániz known as Fabián Pedacchio (born 12 April 1964) is an Argentine priest of the Catholic Church who served from 2013 to 2019 as a personal secretary of
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. ...
. He works on the staff of the Congregation for Bishops where he worked from 2007 to 2013. Before that, in Argentina, he fulfilled assignments as a parish priest for fifteen years and served on church tribunals at the national level.
Argentina
Fabián Pedacchio was born on 12 April 1964 in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
and raised in the barrio of Villa Luro. He studied economics and thought about raising a family before deciding to enter the seminary. He was ordained a priest on 7 December 1992 and through weekly telephone conversations developed a close relationship with his archbishop, Jorge Bergoglio, later Pope Francis. From 1992 to 2007 he held a variety of assignments at six parishes. He also served for several years on two national ecclesiastical tribunals. He is an expert in
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
. He became secretary of SADEC, the Argentinian Society for Canon Law.
Vatican
In 2007, Pope Francis, then Jorge Bergoglio,
Archbishop of Buenos Aires
The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires (''Archidioecesis Bonaerensis'') is one of thirteen Latin Metropolitan archdioceses of the Catholic Church in Argentina, South America.
The Archbishopric of Buenos Aires is the Primatial see (protocollary first-r ...
, recommended Pedacchio for a position on the staff of the Congregation for Bishops. At the time, Bergoglio's suggested candidates for appointments as bishop were being blocked by the Nuncio to Argentina,
Adriano Bernardini
Adriano Bernardini (born 13 August 1942) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who occupied positions in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from the 1970s until he retired in 2017. His first assignment as Apostolic Nuncio was to Bangl ...
. A conservative website reported in December 2011 an anonymous characterization of Pedacchio as "a spy of Cardinal Bergoglio in Rome". On 18 August 2012
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
appointed him a
chaplain of His Holiness
A Chaplain of His Holiness is a priest to whom the Pope has granted this title. They are addressed as Monsignor and have certain privileges with respect to ecclesiastical dress and vestments.monsignor
Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...
.
Pope Francis
Shortly after Bergoglio was elected pope in March 2013, Pedacchio moved to the
Domus Sanctae Marthae
The Domus Sanctae Marthae (Latin for Saint Martha's House; it, Casa Santa Marta) is a building adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Completed in 1996, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, it is named after Martha of Bethan ...
, the Vatican residence where Pope Francis had decided to live. He began collaborating part-time with Pope Francis, while keeping his post of secretary clerk second class at the Congregation for Bishops. He was officially the second secretary to Pope Francis. In June 2013, he told an interviewer: "I want to keep a low profile. I'm doing my best to attend to the Holy Father, without revealing anything of Pope Francis' private life." He became the first secretary in March 2014 when
Alfred Xuereb
Alfred Xuereb (born 14 October 1958) is a Maltese prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Apostolic Nuncio to both South Korea and Mongolia since February 2018. He previously worked in the Roman Curia and was a private secretary to Pop ...
became Secretary General of the
Secretariat for the Economy
The Secretariat for the Economy ( it, Segreteria per l'economia) is a dicastery of the Roman Curia with authority over all economic activities of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.
Description
Pope Francis established the secretariat in ...
.Yoannis Lahzi Gaid was appointed as the new second secretary.
In November 2019, Vatican press secretary
Matteo Bruni
Matteo Bruni (born 23 November 1976) is an Italian-British media professional who serves as director of the Holy See Press Office of the Roman Curia. He was appointed on 18 July 2019 by Pope Francis, succeeding Greg Burke. He is the first no ...
announced that Pedacchio is returning soon to the Congregation for Bishops full time. On 26 January 2020, he was succeeded by Uruguayan priest Rev.
Gonzalo Aemilius
Gonzalo Aemilius (born 18 September 1979 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan Roman Catholic cleric who has served as a personal secretary to Pope Francis since 2020.
Biography
Gonzalo Aemilius was born in Montevideo on 18 September 1979. His parents ...
.
Personal
Pedacchio says he dated girls in his youth. He maintained a profile on the social website
Badoo
Badoo is a dating-focused social network founded by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev in 2006. It is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus and London, United Kingdom,River Plate and likes
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
's novels and
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; (often known simply as Almodóvar) born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narra ...