Enthronement of the new Orthodox Metropolitan of Italy

The enthronement of the new Orthodox Metropolitan of Italy and Exarch of All Southern Europe, His Eminence Polycarpos Stavropoulos, took place in the Cathedral of Saint George of the Greeks in Venice on Thursday 11 March at 11.00 am.

The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was represented by Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary, and Monsignor Andrea Palmieri, Under–Secretary.

Bishop Farrell read a message from Pope Francis, as well as the letter of Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the PCPCU.

Metropolitan Polycarpos Stavropoulos, born in 1963, studied from 1988 to 1990 at the Pontifical Oriental Institute under a scholarship granted by the PCPCU’s Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration. Metropolitan of Spain and Portugal from 2007, His Eminence was elected on 14 January 2021 as the Metropolitan of Italy by the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.