Pope moves St. Peter’s archpriest to Italian diocese without naming successor

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV named Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who has served for over five years as archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and the pope’s vicar for Vatican City, as archbishop of the central Italian Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto.

The Vatican announced Oct. 3 that Cardinal Gambetti would succeed Archbishop Bruno Forte, whose resignation was accepted by the pope.

However, the pope did not immediately name a new archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. The current vicar of the archpriest, who helps oversee the basilica, is Italian Bishop Calogero La Piana.

Cardinal Gambetti, whom the late Pope Francis created a cardinal in 2020, is a Conventual Franciscan and, before his 2021 appointment as archpriest, served as general custos of the Sacred Convent of St. Francis of Assisi.

As archpriest, the Italian prelate oversaw the daily administration of St. Peter’s Basilica and presided over liturgies when the pope was not present. Cardinal Gambetti also served as president of the Fabric of St. Peter, the Vatican office responsible for maintaining the basilica complex.

According to Pope Francis’ apostolic constitution “Praedicate Evangelium” (Preach the Gospel) on the reform of the Roman Curia, the Fabric of St. Peter’s “deals with everything that concerns the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter,” which includes “the conservation and decorum of the building, and the internal discipline” of staff, pilgrims and visitors.

Among the projects that he oversaw during his tenure was the restoration of the nearly 100-foot-tall baldachin towering over the basilica’s main altar, designed over 400 years ago by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

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