Leo XIV Appoints New Rome Auxiliary Bishops: "Religion Can Hide God"
Mons Stefano Sparapani, 69
- Born in Rome (1956)
- Ordained priest in 1991
- Episcopal Vicar for the North Sector (since Jan 2025)
- Spiritual Father at the Almo Collegio Capranica (since 2015)
- Parish priest of St Basil (since 2010)
His parish San Basilio has a high concentration of immigrants, poor people and a lot of criminal activity (drugs, abuses, thefts, violence).
He told OsservatoreRomano.va in June 2020 that Pope Francis is liked very much there: “Because people recognize him as someone ‘real,’ someone who believes in and loves the Gospel.”
Mons Sparapani described himself as “not coming from the sacristy”. “I have always been in the world, where I try to bring a bit of light to those who never see the light and therefore despair.”
He commissioned the accused pervert Marko Rupnik to paint his parish church.
In February 2021, Sparapani praised his friend Rupnik in an audio published by SoundCloud-Account “Gli Scritti”: “I’m from Matera. We’ve known each other for a long time, since the days of the Capranica College. He’s older than me, but we crossed paths in the same years.”
“Having come to know Father Marko Ivan Rupnik was a great gift.”
The scandal about Rupnik publically broke after the interview, in 2022, but his ugly artwork with the black eyes was visible as such before.
In the same interview, Mons Sparapani attacks a “religion set up as law that does not know mercy”, adding that these are “often our religious attitudes, which can become rigid, blocked”.
“Religion can hide the true face of God”, he said.
Mons Marco Valenti, 64
- Born in Cantalupo Sabino (1961)
- Ordained priest in 1986 at St John Lateran
- On Caritas Rome foundation board (since 2022)
- Parish priest of the Transfiguration (since 2024)
On DiocesiDiRoma.it, Mons Valenti highlights that his parish’s “distinctive traits” are welcoming and ecumenism. He mentions that parish buildings are being made available to Caritas projects on social themes such as peace or the environment. One such event hosted immigrants and used the rainbow-peace flag.
In an interview in Strade Aperte, in the March/April 2020 edition about Amoris Laetitia, Mons Valenti aligned himself with Francis: “Regarding ‘which side to be on,’ I am on the side of Pope Francis when he recommends to us priests to keep the doors of the Churches open, to go out into the streets, to be in the ‘existential peripheries.’ […] To strengthen ‘synodality’ between priests and laity.”
Monsignor Valenti claimed: “Our Lord is where it is more complex to discern between good and evil, where it is more difficult to understand the ‘paradox’ of a God of love and harmony.”
For him, “Christian life is not chasing an absolute ideal good”.
Mons Alessandro Zenobbi, 56
- Born in Rome (1969)
- Ordained priest in 1996 at St. Peter’s Basilica
- Episcopal Vicar for coordinating pastoral activities in the West Sector (appointed 2024)
- Parish priest of St. Lucia (since 2017)
Minor political incident: In January 2022, a funeral connected to far-right activism led to a coffin covered with a Nazi swastika flag outside the church of Santa Lucia. Monsignor Zenobbi condemned it strongly, explaining that it happened without the parish’s knowledge.
Mons Andrea Carlevale, 55
- Born in Rome (1971)
- Ordained priest in 1998 at St. Peter’s Basilica
- Assistant at the Pontifical Roman 'Seminary Major' (2009–2015)
- Parish priest of St. John the Baptist de Rossi (since Sept 2025)
The chapel in the 'Seminary Major' features around 1,700 m² of paintings and mosaics by Rupnik. Several recent pictures of Monsignor Carlevale are displayed before Rupnik's art, without any particular significance.
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