Ennio Antonelli

Coat of arms of Cardinal Antonelli, from the basilica of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. It show his episcopal motto, Voluntas Dei pax nostra, "The will of God is our peace".

Ennio Cardinal Antonelli (born November 18, 1936) is an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Florence from March 2001 to June 2008 when he was appointed as President of the Pontifical Council for the Family [1].

Born in Todi, he first attended seminary there, and subsequently studied in Assisi and the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, where he was awarded a licentiate in sacred theology. Thereafter he earned a doctorate in Classics at the University of Perugia. He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Todi in 1960. He eventually became rector of the Seminary of Perugia and a professor of Classics in Assisi before being ordained a bishop in 1982, when Pope John Paul II named him to head the diocese of Gubbio. In 1988 he was advanced to Archbishop of Perugia-Citta del Pieve, from which see he stepped down in 1995 to become Secretary-General of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

He served in this position until he was named to the see of Florence, whose archbishop is traditionally named a Cardinal, and he was duly elevated in the consistory of 2003, with the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis.

Styles of Ennio Antonelli
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Florence

Antonelli was considered a papabile Italian candidate heading into the 2005 papal conclave in which Pope Benedict XVI was elected and at which Antonelli was a cardinal elector. Cardinal Antonelli remains eligible to vote in any future papal conclaves that occur before his 80th birthday on November 18, 2016. He was appointed by Pope Benedict to become President of the Pontifical Council for the Family in the Roman Curia on 7 June 2008.