Rino Passigato, GCC,

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

(born 29 March 1944) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, who was the Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal from 2008 to 2019 and is the current Apostolic Nuncio

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

to Portugal.

Biography

Passigato was born on

Bovolone Bovolone is a town and a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verona in the Italian region Veneto, located about west of Venice and about southeast of Verona. Bovolone borders the following municipalities: Cerea, Concamarise, Isol ...

, Italy, on 29 March 1944. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1968 in Verona, Italy.

Diplomatic career

In 1991 he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Nova Caesaris and

Apostolic Pro-Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...

. By 1996 he was Apostolic Nuncio to

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and in 1999 he moved on to Peru. On 8 November 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal. He also served in the Apostolic Nunciature in Australia in the late 1970s and in the United Kingdom under Apostolic Nuncio Barbaroto.

Portugal

Criticism

The criticism started shortly after he started his tenure in Portugal and refused to disclose his criteria for the selection of new potential candidates for bishops to the Episcopal Conference of Portugal. Passagiato was accused by the Portuguese catholic clergy of taking "deplorable" and "inhumane" decisions regarding the affairs of the Holy See in Portugal. Portuguese bishops and clergy accused Passagiato of favouring bishops candidates who are "traditionalists" and "career oriented", and of "not listening to people".

= António Francisco dos Santos case

= António Francisco dos Santos was Bishop of Aveiro until 2014. Following the appointment of Manuel Clemente to the Patriarchate of Lisbon, Passigato decided, in a nine-month lengthy process, to relocate Bishop dos Santos to Porto in order to substitute Bishop Clemente. The suggestion of Bishop dos Santos, made to Pope, was resisted, in the beginning, by the appointee and shortly before his appointment was made official two priests from Aveiro appealed to Passigato's piety due to the poor heart condition of Bishop dos Santos who himself feared not being capable of heading a bigger diocese. Bishop dos Santos would die 3 years after his appointment to Porto due to heart attack.

= João Lavrador case

= João Lavrador, current Bishop of Angra, also pleaded Nuncio Passigato for his piety to not be appointed as bishop at the time in order to be able to assist his bedridden parents. Passigato refused such plead and had Lavrador appointed as bishop in 2015; shortly afterward his father died in April 2016 and his mother in January 2017. In this regard Passigato was accused of not taking into consideration Catholic family values.

Honours

Grand Cross of the Order of Christ of the Portuguese Republic (11 March 2010).Portuguese Presidency Website, Order
search form
: type "Joan-Enric Vives i" in "nome", then click "Pesquisar" * PRT Order of Saint James of the Sword - Grand Cross BAR

PRT Order of Saint James of the Sword - Grand Cross BAR

Grand Cross of the

Order of Saint James of the Sword The Military Order of Saint James of the Sword ( pt, Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada) is a Portuguese order of chivalry. Its full name is the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, of the Scientifi ...

of the Portuguese Republic (6 June 2009).

References

External links

Archbishop Rino Passigato at Catholic Hierarchy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Passigato, Rino 1944 births Living people People from Bovolone 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops Apostolic Nuncios to Portugal Apostolic Nuncios to Peru Apostolic Nuncios to Burundi Apostolic Nuncios to Bolivia 21st-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops