Rino Passigato

Rino Passigato (born 29 March 1944) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, who was the Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal from 2008 to 2019. He joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1973. He has been an archbishop since 1992 and served as an apostolic nuncio in Burundi, Bolivia, and Peru.

Biography Rino Passigato was born in Bovolone, Italy, on 29 March 1944. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Verona on 29 June 1968. He entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the Vatican school for diplomats, in 1969.

He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1973. His early assignments included postings in Cameroon, Australia, Egypt, Great Britain, and the United States. In 1982 he earned a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University with a dissertation titled "The regime of religious freedom and the relations between the political community and the Catholic Church in Vatican II".

On 16 December 1991, Pope John Paul II appointed titular archbishop of Nova Caesaris and Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Burundi. He received his episcopal consecration on 6 January 1992 from Pope John Paul. In Burundi he witnessed the beginnings of genocidal violence between Hutus and Tutsis, and sheltered hundreds of refugees in the garden of the nunciature in Bujumbura.

On 18 March 1996, he was named Apostolic Nuncio to Bolivia.

On 17 July 1999, he was named Apostolic Nuncio to Peru.

On 8 November 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal. He presented his credentials to Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal, on 11 November.

In October 2017, the weekly newspaperExpresso published a lengthy attack on Passigato citing mostly anonymous priests and bishops accusing him of incompetence and lack of consideration for personal circumstances in episcopal appointments. He declined to comment.

Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his priestly ordination in July 2018, the Salesians of Portugal praised his:

Honours 80x80px Grand Cross of the Order of Christ of the Portuguese Republic (11 March 2010). 80x80px Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword of the Portuguese Republic (6 June 2009).