Bishop of Padova
Claudio Cipolla was born in Goito, in the province and diocese of Mantua, on February 11, 1955. He attended secondary school at the Minor Seminary of the Diocese of Mantua and subsequently pursued theological and philosophical studies at the Major Seminary of the same diocese. He was ordained a deacon on December 16, 1978, and received priestly ordination on May 24, 1980, in the Co-Cathedral Basilica of Sant’Andrea in Mantua, at the hands of H.E. Msgr. Carlo Ferrari, then Bishop of Mantua. He served as parochial vicar of the Ognissanti parish in Mantua from 1980 to 1989; as assistant for the Scouts and Guides branch of AGESCI from 1980 to 1990; as parochial vicar of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Cedole from 1989 to 1990; as provincial assistant for AGESCI from 1989 to 1992; and as director of the diocesan Caritas from 1990 to 2008. Since 1998, he has served as parish priest of Sant’Antonio in Porto Mantovano, and since 2008, he has also served as Episcopal Vicar for the Pastoral Sector. He was also the diocesan coordinator for the preparation of the National Conventions of the Italian Church in Palermo (1995) and Verona (2006) and a member of the diocesan delegation to those conventions; he served as a member of the College of Consultors (2009–2014), the Diocesan Pastoral Council, and the Commission for the Ongoing Formation of the Clergy. He is an *ex officio* member of the Episcopal Council (2014–2017) and the Presbyteral Council (2012–2016). Since October 27, 2011, he has held the title of Chaplain of His Holiness.