Marcello Bartolucci is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has held the rank of archbishop since 2011 and has been the Secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 29 December 2010. He has held several other posts in that Congregation since joining it in 1977.
Biography
Bartolucci was born in 1944 in Bastia Umbra in the diocese of Assisi. He studied at the philosophy and theology and the regional seminary and was ordained on 9 November 1968. He received his doctorate in theology and a Diploma in Pastoral Theology, specializing in catechesis from the Pontifical Lateran University and a licentiate in canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome. After ten years of pastoral experience, first as curate and then as parish priest, with a number of positions within the diocese, and also as a teacher of religion in state schools in 1977, he joined the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in the service of the Office of the Judicial Ministry. Following the reform of the Congregation and the process in 1983, he collaborated with various superiors that have followed in the preparation of opinions on individual cases in the study of processes and practices in the Secretariat. For over twenty years he was in charge of drafting the decrees on the virtues, martyrdom and miracles, both in Italian and Latin for publication on "Acta Apostolicae Sedis", taking care of the writing in the Italian Papal Bulls of canonisation and Briefs Apostolic beatification. He served as Secretary of the Commission for the revision of the rite of beatification. He teaches at the "Studium" of the congregation. He was appointed Under-Secretary of Congregation on 14 July 2007 and served in that capacity until 29 December 2010 when Pope Benedict appointed him Titular Archbishop of Mevania and secretary of the dicastery. He was consecrated on 5 February 2011 by Pope Benedict. The co-consecrators were Cardinals Angelo Sodano and Tarcisio Bertone, SDB.
