Italian Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi succeeds Mgr Angelo Vincenzo Zani, who had been in office since 2022 and recently turned 75.
Newsroom (31/03/2025 21:42, Gaudium Press) Pope Francis has appointed Italian Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi as archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church. The announcement was made on Friday by the Vatican Press Office.
Archbishop Pagazzi – who previously served as secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education – succeeds Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, who held the post since 2022 and recently turned 75.
For centuries, the position of librarian of the Holy Roman Church was associated with the title of cardinal. Pope Francis has removed this automaticity.
The largest collection of manuscripts in the world
The Vatican Apostolic Library has one of the most important book collections in Europe and the largest collection of manuscripts in the world.
The Vatican Apostolic Archives, formerly the Secret Archives, contains ecclesiastical documents dating back to the 8th century. Both institutions attract researchers from all over the world.
The archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church exercises a kind of patronage over the Collection of Papal Books and the Apostolic Archives, formerly known as the Common Archives.
Operationally, the administration is carried out by two prefects. The Italian Augustinian Rocco Ronzani has been Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archives since 2024, and his counterpart at the Vatican Apostolic Library has been the Italian Salesian Mauro Mantovani since 2023.
Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi
Monsignor Pagazzi was born in Crema, in the Italian region of Lombardy, on June 8, 1965. Ordained a priest on June 23, 1990, he was parochial vicar at the parish of Saints Bassiano and Fereolo in Lodi and then dedicated himself to his studies, obtaining a master’s degree and a doctorate in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He has been a professor at various institutes and universities and, at the “Saint Augustine” Higher Institute of Religious Sciences in the dioceses of Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Pavia and Vigevano, he has held the positions of director and vice-director. Since October 2019, he has been full professor of ecclesiology and family community, research coordinator and member of the presidency team of the Pontifical Theological Institute “John Paul II” for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome.
On September 26, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, while in November of the following year the Pontiff elevated him to the episcopal dignity. He received his episcopal ordination on February 10, 2024 from the hands of Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
With information from Vatican News and AICA
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
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