Angelo De Donatis

Cardinal De Donatis, a moral theologian by training and long-time spiritual director of priests, has made few public statements on contested moral questions such as Amoris laetitia or Fiducia supplicans. He is known for speaking of Christians as 'forgiven sinners' and for warning against treating the past as a golden age. Some profiles describe him as open to Fiducia supplicans, but no detailed public statement has been documented.

As Vicar General of Rome, Cardinal De Donatis applied Pope Francis' motu proprio Traditionis custodes strictly. In October 2021 he required priests to obtain written authorization to celebrate with the 1962 Missal and barred the traditional rite during the Easter Triduum in the diocese of Rome. He is not known to have defended the older liturgy publicly.

Cardinal De Donatis has rarely intervened publicly on political or social controversies. As Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University he oversaw the launch of a study programme in ecology and the environment, which Pope Francis welcomed in a 2021 letter addressed to him. His public profile on migration and social questions remains limited.

Pope Francis chose Angelo De Donatis to preach the Curia's 2014 Lenten retreat, ordained him bishop in 2015, named him Vicar of Rome in 2017 and created him cardinal in 2018. Relations cooled after the pope made him reverse the closure of Rome's churches in March 2020, and a January 2023 reform sharply reduced the vicar's powers. In April 2024 he was moved to lead the Apostolic Penitentiary; he has never criticized the pope publicly.

Cardinal De Donatis has spoken favourably of interreligious dialogue, notably in March 2021 when, meeting Morocco's ambassador to Italy, he praised the country as a land of encounter and highlighted Pope Francis' 2019 visit to Morocco. Otherwise, interreligious dialogue has not been a prominent part of his public profile.

Cardinal De Donatis favours a simple, spiritual style rooted in decades of work as a spiritual director; he stresses openness and dialogue and recalls that Pope Francis told him not to give long homilies. He is not a frequent media presence, appearing mostly through liturgical functions, such as presiding over the traditional Ash Wednesday liturgy on the Aventine in 2025.