Semeraro was born in
Monteroni di Lecce,
Province of Lecce, Italy. He was ordained to the priesthood on 8 September 1971. He received his Doctor of Theology degree in 1980 from the
Pontifical Lateran University. On 25 July 1998 he was named
Bishop of Oria. He was consecrated on 29 September 1998 by Archbishop
Cosmo Francesco Ruppi with Archbishops Domenico Caliandro and Donato Negro as co-consecrators. He taught at the
Pontifical Lateran University in 2001.
Pope John Paul II chose him as Special Secretary of the 2001
Synod of Bishops, which considered the role of the bishops in contemporary society. That Synod's final statement pointed to social injustice as the root cause of terrorism and decried third world debt and "the enduring drama of hunger and extreme poverty". Semeraro commented: "There is a strong will to dismantle the image of bishops as men of power and to reinstitute the image of bishops as men of service." On 1 October 2004 he was named Bishop of Albano. He is a Consultant to the
Congregation for the Clergy and the
Italian Episcopal Conference (IEC), and a member of the IEC Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith. On 4 May 2007 he was elected president of the administrative board of the IEC newspaper
Avvenire, in place of Cardinal
Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, who had been elected president of the IEC. In June 2010, he became president of the IEC Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith. On 13 April 2013 Pope Francis appointed him secretary of the commission of cardinals appointed to advise him on the government of the Church and the organization of the Roman Curia. On 4 November 2013, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Exarchic Monastery and
Territorial Abbacy of Saint Mary of Grottaferrata. In a 2017 interview, Semeraro described the work of the Council of Cardinals: listening, reflecting, and verifying. The Council, he said, listens to the contributions of the Church; reflects on those contributions, and looks into the details of them, considering the best way of going forward. It then makes proposals to the Pope; as Semeraro explained, the Council has a consultative role. On 15 October 2020, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On 25 October 2020, Pope Francis announced he would raise him to the rank of
cardinal at a consistory scheduled for 28 November 2020. At that consistory, Francis made him Cardinal-Deacon of
Santa Maria in Domnica. On 16 December he was named a member of the
Congregation for Oriental Churches and the
Dicastery for Communications. He participated as a
cardinal elector in the
2025 papal conclave that elected
Pope Leo XIV. ==Works==