Bishop of Nardò-Gallipoli
Bishop Fernando Tarcisio Filograna, Bishop of Nardò-Gallipoli, was born on September 29, 1952, in Lequile, in the province of Lecce and the Archdiocese of Lecce. A student of the minor seminary of Lecce and of the regional seminary of Taranto, he then entered the Roman Major Seminary. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Lateran University and obtained a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest for Lecce on June 29, 1977. He then served as animator at the Pontifical Roman Seminary (1977-1978); spiritual father at the minor seminary of Lecce (1978-1983); notary of the diocesan ecclesiastical tribunal (1978-1979); vice-chancellor of the curia (1979-1983); rector of the episcopal seminary of Lecce (1983-1996); canon of the cathedral church (1984-1996); director of the diocesan vocations centre (1985-1996); archpriest of Maria Santissima Assunta at Trepuzzi (1996-2007); and episcopal vicar for the clergy and the permanent diaconate (1999-2005). He has been a member of the college of consultors since 1998, a canon of the cathedral church since 1999, a member of the commission for the clergy and consecrated life of the Apulian Episcopal Conference since 2000, and parish priest of San Giovanni Maria Vianney and vicar general of Lecce since 2007. He taught fundamental theology at the Institute of Religious Sciences of Lecce, writes for the diocesan paper L'Ora del Salento, and is postulator for the cause of beatification of Bishop Ugo de Blasi. On July 16, 2013, he was appointed Bishop of Nardò-Gallipoli. He received episcopal ordination on September 14, 2013, at Lecce, with Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio as principal consecrator and Adriano Bernardini and Donato Negro as co-consecrators. He was installed as Bishop of Nardò-Gallipoli on September 28, 2013.