From the Pope's last words to extra omnes in the Sistine Chapel: who is the Monsignor from Brianza who will decree the start of the Conclave

Those who followed the last days of Pope Francis' life certainly did not go unnoticed. Not least because Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, who was born in 1965 and lives in Lanzate, a small town in Brianza, accompanied all the most important passages broadcast worldwide, starting with that message sounded immediately after the few words the Pontiff had barely spoken on Easter Sunday. When, looking out from the balcony of the loggia of the Apostolic Palace, Bergoglio had addressed a brief greeting to the many people present in the square ("dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter"), and then passed the baton to Ravelli himself: "I ask the Master of Ceremonies to read the message".

Ravelli had then appeared next to Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Joseph Farrell during the announcement of the Supreme Father's death, as well as at the closing and blessing of the coffin (it was he who spread a white silk veil over Francis' face before it was sealed). And, on the day of the funeral, in a packed St. Peter's Square, the Monsignor from Brianza then knelt in front of the Pope's coffin, filmed by TV cameras around the world, to rest that Gospel, the pages of which, throughout the liturgy, continued to be caressed by the light breeze blowing over the Vatican.

A central presence, therefore, within the Holy See in the days of Bergoglio's farewell. And who will continue to be so throughout the path that will lead to the election of his successor. Because Ravelli plays a strategic role in the Vatican. Where, since October 2021, he has been the maestro of the pontifical liturgical celebrations and head of the office of the same name, as well as head of the Sistine Pontifical Music Chapel, and, since 27 June 2023, pontifical delegate for the basilica of St. Anthony of Padua.

Born in Lazzate in 1965, Ravelli completed his studies at the episcopal seminary in Como. In 1991 he was ordained a priest in Como Cathedral by Bishop Alessandro Maggiolini for the public clerical association 'Priests of Jesus Crucified'. In '98 he was appointed an official of the Apostolic Elemosineria and in 2000, at the age of 35, he graduated in Pedagogical Methodology at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome and in 2010 he obtained a doctorate in Sacred Liturgy at the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Urbe. In 2003, he was awarded the title of chaplain to His Holiness and, two years later, became first papal master of ceremonies and then, from 2013, head of office in the Apostolic Elemosineria until, in 2021, Pope Francis appointed him master of papal liturgical celebrations and head of the Sistine Pontifical Music Chapel in place of Guido Marini, who became bishop of Tortona.

And it is this last assignment that makes him a key piece of the Vatican 'machine'. It was not by chance that it was Ravelli who announced that Pope Francis' coffin would be closed on Friday 25 April at 8pm. And it was also the archbishop from Brianza who supervised the complex liturgy and rites that preceded and will follow the Pontiff's funeral during the sede vacante, starting with the most important junction for the future fate of the Catholic Church: the appointment of the new 'servant of the servants of God'.