Angelo Scola

Angelo Scola was born in Malgrate, near Milan, on 7 November 1941, the younger son of a truck driver. At the Manzoni Lyceum in Lecco he joined Gioventù Studentesca and met Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, whose movement shaped his life. He took a doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, then entered the seminary; he was ordained a priest in Teramo on 18 July 1970. He taught, researched theological anthropology, and served as a consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Grosseto in 1991 (consecrated 21 September 1991 by Cardinal Gantin), then rector of the Pontifical Lateran University and president of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies (1995–2002). On 5 January 2002 he became Patriarch of Venice, and John Paul II created him a cardinal on 21 October 2003, with the title of Santi XII Apostoli. On 28 June 2011 Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Milan — Europe's largest diocese — where he served until 7 July 2017. He voted in the conclaves of 2005 and 2013; in 2013 he was widely considered the leading candidate entering the conclave. His motto is Sufficit gratia Tua — “your grace suffices.”