No doubt most priests feel a sense of trepidation when they are asked to become bishops. But Fr. Paolo Bizzeti had more reason than most. In 2015, Pope Francis appointed the Italian Jesuit as Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia in Turkey. The post had remained vacant for five years after the death of Bishop Luigi Padovese. Padovese, an Italian Capuchin, was murdered by his driver. In an email interview with CNA, Bizzeti said that when he was called to succeed the bishop, he did not need to think too hard about his response. “But suddenly Pope Francis, in 2015, asked me for my willingness to come to the Vicariate of Anatolia which had been without a bishop for five years because Msgr. Padovese was assassinated on June 3, 2010,” he recalled. “It was urgent that there was finally a bishop and I, like every Jesuit Father, have always been available to go where the pope asked.”
Catholic bishop in Turkey: Jesus is drawing people to the Church in ‘unthinkable ways’ – Catholic World Report
Catholic bishop in Turkey: Jesus is drawing people to the Church in ‘unthinkable ways’ – Catholic World Report
