Bishop Ernesto Mandara

Bishop Ernesto Mandara, Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto, was born on July 24, 1952, in Positano, in the province of Salerno and the Archdiocese of Amalfi-Cava de' Tirreni. After attending state middle schools at Positano, he studied at the minor seminary of the Prelature of Pompei, and was then sent to the Roman Minor Seminary, continuing his formation at the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary as a student of theology at the Pontifical Lateran University and the Pontifical Gregorian University. Having completed his institutional studies, he perfected his formation at the Alphonsian Academy while a student of the Pontifical Lombard Seminary (1978-1979). He was ordained a priest for Amalfi-Cava de' Tirreni on April 22, 1978, and was placed by his ordinary at the service of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary as assistant (1979-1983), being appointed vice-rector in 1983, an office he held until 1990. He was incardinated in Roma on February 1, 1990. He served as parish priest of Santa Maria delle Grazie al Trionfale in Rome (1990-2002) and for a time as prefect of the thirty-second prefecture, and from 2002 as director of the office for church building and secretary of the Roman Work for the Preservation of the Faith and the Provision of New Churches at the Vicariate of Rome. On April 2, 2004, he was appointed Titular Bishop of Turris in Mauretania and Auxiliary Bishop of Roma. He received episcopal ordination on June 5, 2004, at Roma, with Camillo Ruini as principal consecrator and Luigi Moretti and Giuseppe Mani as co-consecrators. On June 10, 2011, he was appointed Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto, and he was installed on August 28, 2011. He has served as a member of the board of the Santi Francesco d'Assisi e Caterina da Siena foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference.