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 (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

. 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, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

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 , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

. He became secretary of SADEC, the Argentinian Society for Canon Law.

Vatican

In 2007, Pope Francis, then Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, 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. 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 BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

appointed him a

chaplain of His Holiness Chaplain of His Holiness is a title of distinction given by the Pope in recognition of a priest's service to the Church. They are addressed with the honorific of "Monsignor" and have certain privileges with respect to ecclesiastical dress and ve ...

with the title

monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

Pope Francis

Shortly after Bergoglio was elected pope in March 2013, Pedacchio moved to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, 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 became Secretary General of the

Secretariat for the Economy The Secretariat for the Economy () 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 a '' motu proprio'', ''Fidelis ...

. Yoannis Lahzi Gaid was appointed as the new second secretary. In November 2019, Vatican press secretary Matteo Bruni 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.

Personal

Pedacchio says he dated girls in his youth. He maintained a profile on the social website Badoo. He is an avid supporter of River Plate and likes

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...

's novels and

Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and author. His films are distinguished by Melodrama (film genre), melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular c ...

's films.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedacchio, Fabian 20th-century Argentine Roman Catholic priests 1964 births Clergy from Buenos Aires Officials of the Roman Curia Pope Francis Living people 21st-century Argentine Roman Catholic priests