Giorgio Demetrio Gallaro

Giorgio Demetrio Gallaro (born 16 January 1948) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches from 25 February 2020 until 15 February 2023. He was the Bishop of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, a diocese of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church in Sicily, Italy from 2015 to 2020, where he remained Apostolic Administrator until 19 June 2023.

Biography Gallaro was born in Pozzallo, Sicily, on 16 January 1948. He began his studies in preparation for the priesthood in the seminary of Noto, he moved to Los Angeles where he studied at St. John's Seminary and was ordained a priest in 1972. He then worked for eight years as a parish priest in two parishes of the Eastern Rite in Los Angeles. He then studied in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Rome and at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, obtaining his doctorate in canonical eastern law and a licenciate in ecumenical theology. He was consecrated a bishop on 28 June by the bishop of Lungro Donato Oliverio as principal consecrator, and the bishops Dimitrios Salachas and Nicholas James Samra as co-consecrators.

On 25 February 2020, Pope Francis appointed him secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and gave him the personal title of archbishop. He held that post until Pope Francis appointed Michel Jalakh as secretary.