Ricardo Ezzati Andrello

Ricardo Ezzati Andrello (, ; born 7 January 1942) is an Italian-born Chilean prelate of the Catholic Church who has lived and worked in Chile since the age of 17. He was Archbishop of Santiago from December 2010 to March 2019 and has been a cardinal since February 2014. He previously served as Archbishop of Concepción. He headed the Episcopal Conference of Chile from 2010 to 2016.

Early life and education Ricardo Ezzati was born in Campiglia dei Berici, Vicenza, Italy. He immigrated to Chile in 1959 to enter the novitiate of the Salesians in Quilpué, Valparaíso, and studied philosophy at the Catholic University of Valparaíso. He studied theology at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, where he obtained his licentiate.

He made his final vows as a Salesian on 30 December 1966 and was ordained as a priest of the Salesian order on 18 March 1970. After his ordination he received a Licentiate in Religious Studies at the Institut de Pastoral Catéchetique in Strasbourg. He then held the title of Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Valparaíso.

On 10 July 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of the much larger Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile, assigning him the titular see of La Imperial.

In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named him and four other prelates to serve as Apostolic Visitors to the Legionaries of Christ following the discovery that the order's founder, Marciel Maciel Degollado, an associate of Pope John Paul II, had engaged in sexual abuse of minors and young men. Ezzati was given responsibility for investigating the order in South America: Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela,

On 15 December 2010, Pope Benedict appointed Ezzati as Archbishop of Santiago de Chile to replace Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz, who had submitted his resignation as required upon reaching the age of 75.

Pope Francis named Ezzati a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education in November 2013.

He was elevated to the rank of cardinal at a consistory on 22 February 2014. In May 2014, Pope Francis named him a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

In October 2014, Ezzati denied press reports that he had denounced the Jesuit priest Felipe Berríos to the Vatican and said he had only replied to inquiries about the priest's controversial statements from the papal nuncio. Press reports later demonstrated that Ezzati had initiated the accusation process to prevent Berríos from becoming chaplain at the presidential palace. He was one of the four prelates who presented the 2014 synod's summary document (the relatio). He served as president of the Episcopal Conference of Chile from 2010 to 2016.

In December 2016, Ezzati submitted his resignation as required upon reaching the age of 75. Pope Francis did not accept it. In May 2018, Ezzati submitted it again.

On 22 March 2019, the Supreme Court of Chile rejected Ezzati's petition to stop the preliminary proceedings against him and not to bring in an accusation against him. One day later, Pope Francis accepted the submitted resignation.

Karadima case scandal

In February 2011, he announced that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, based on an investigation conducted under his predecessor, had found Fernando Karadima, a prominent priest in the archdiocese, guilty of sexually abusing minors. In 2013 and 2014, he teamed with his predecessor, Cardinal Errazuriz, on a secret campaign to prevent Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima's victims and accusers, from being appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The revelation of their email correspondence in September 2015 prompted advocates for victims of abuse to call for Ezzati's resignation.

In January 2015, Pope Francis named Bishop Juan Barros Madrid to head a diocese. Barros was closely associated with Karadima and continued to defend him. Ezzati's advice that the appointment be withdrawn was not accepted.

Ongoing lawsuit

On October 21, 2018, reports surfaced that Chile's Court of Appeal ordered Ezzati's office to pay 450 million Chilean pesos ($650,000) to three men who claimed that Karadima had sexually abused them for decades. However, Dobra Lusic, a spokesperson for the Court of Appeal, stated that the lawsuit was still ongoing and that no verdict had been reached.

Resignation amid new lawsuit

A man filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Ezzati and the Archdiocese of Santiago claiming that in 2015 he had been raped in a bedroom attached to the cathedral and that Ezzati had bribed him to keep silent. On 23 March 2019, Pope Francis accepted Ezzati's resignation, presented when he turned 75.