Apostolic Penitentiary
With his new role as Major Penitentiary, De Donatis will serve as the head of the Vatican tribunal in charge of cases involving excommunication and serious sins, including those whose absolution is reserved to the Holy See. For this reason, the Apostolic Penitentiary is referred to as a tribunal of mercy.
De Donatis succeeds 80-year-old Cardinal Mauro Piacenza who is retiring as Major Penitentiary after more than a decade in the post.
As Major Penitentiary, De Donatis will have a unique privilege during a potential conclave. The head of the Apostolic Penitentiary retains his position sede vacante (after the pope has died or resigned) and is one of the only cardinal electors who can communicate with people outside of the conclave to fulfill his duties — a privilege only shared by the cardinal vicar of Rome and the vicar general of Vatican City State.
Historic appointment as vicar
De Donatis was born in the southeastern Italian town of Casarano in Apulia, Italy, on Jan. 4, 1954. He studied philosophy in Rome at the Pontifical Lateran University and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he received a licentiate in moral theology, before he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Nardò-Gallipoli in southern Italy in 1980.
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