Archbishop Paolo Pezzi

Paolo Pezzi was born on August 8, 1960, in Russi, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in Rome in 1987 and a bachelor's degree in theology in Rome in 1990. On December 22, 1990, he was ordained a priest within the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo. From 1993 to 1998, he served as dean of the central region of the Apostolic Administration for Latin-rite Catholics in the Asian part of Russia (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk) and as editor-in-chief of the *Siberian Catholic Newspaper*. Since 1994, he has been associated with the "Christian Russia" Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting the heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church in the West and publishing and distributing Christian literature in Russia. In 2000, he defended his doctoral dissertation in pastoral theology—titled "The Catholic Church and the New Evangelization in Siberia"—at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. From 1998 to 2005, he served as vicar to the superior of the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo. Since 1998, he has been the visitor for Russia for the ecclesial movement *Communio e Liberazione* (Communion and Liberation). Since 2005, he has been the person in charge of the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo in Russia. Since 2004, he has taught pastoral theology at the "Mary, Queen of Apostles" Catholic Major Seminary in St. Petersburg. From 2006 to 2008, he served as rector of the "Mary, Queen of Apostles" Catholic Major Seminary. On September 21, 2007, he was appointed to the See of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow and raised to the rank of Archbishop-Metropolitan of the Russian ecclesiastical province. He was ordained a bishop on October 27, 2007, in Moscow. From 2011 to 2017 and from 2020 to 2026, he served as Chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia. He is the author of a number of works on theology and social anthropology. On May 2, 2026, Pope Leo XIV accepted Archbishop Paolo Pezzi's resignation from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow.