As the Vatican’s lead master of ceremonies for 14 years, Marini worked under both Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
He said: “I knew the popes very well and this, for me, was a great gift for my life and for my ministry, also because I worked with two great popes, who are different but complementary.”
“I always admired Benedict for the greatness of his thought and the greatness and depth of his reflections, and at the same time, his extraordinary humility,” Marini explained. “This always made a big impression on me.”
The bishop-elect added: “Regarding Pope Francis, I admire his great strength and the great eagerness he carries in his heart. He wants to reach everyone with God’s goodness. He doesn’t want to leave anyone behind.”
Marini was interviewed close to his childhood home in Genoa, outside the Church of the Most Holy Conception, also known as the Church of the Capuchins of the Holy Father.
“And here is where my vocation was born, where I lived some beautiful and trying moments, when I was a child, adolescent, young adult. I made my First Communion here. Here there is much of my life,” he reminisced about the church.
He said he did not yet have any plans for how he would carry out his new ministry as a bishop. But he thought it was important to first enter into the life of the local Church, listen to the Holy Spirit, and then lead with docility.
“Otherwise I think there are two important elements,” he commented, “that of profound communion and that of a great eagerness of the heart.”
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.