Joseph Salvador Marino or more commonly Joseph Marino is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1988. He was named president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in October 2019 after representing the Holy See in Malaysia, East Timor, and Brunei for six years.
Biography
Joseph Salvador Marino was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on January 23, 1953, one of three sons born to Salvador Marino, an electrical engineer, and Josephine Marino. He grew up in the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham and graduated from John Carroll High School in 1971. He was ordained a priest on August 25, 1979, for the Diocese of Birmingham. He earned degrees in philosophy and psychology from the University of Scranton and in theology and biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University while living at the North American College from 1975 to 1980. He returned to Birmingham for four years of pastoral work as associate pastor at St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1984 he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy to prepare for a career in the diplomatic service while obtaining a doctorate in canon law from the Gregorian. He joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See on July 15, 1988. His early assignments included stints in the Philippines from 1988 to 1991, Uruguay from 1991 to 1994, and Nigeria from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 2004 he worked in the offices of the Secretariat of State in Rome, where he had responsibility for the Balkans. He participated as senior staff-member in two diplomatic missions: Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran's visit to Belgrade on April 1, 1999, that sought a resolution to the conflict in Kosovo; and the meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and Cardinal Pio Laghi in which the Holy See hoped to prevent the U.S. from launching a war against Iraq. He was working in the Apostolic Nunciature to the United Kingdom when, on January 12, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named him a titular archbishop and Apostolic Nuncio to Bangladesh. He received his episcopal consecration from Cardinal Tauran on March 29, 2008, at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham. On January 16, 2013, Pope Benedict appointed Marino Apostolic Nuncio to Malaysia, Apostolic Nuncio to East Timor, and Apostolic Delegate to Brunei. He negotiated the 2015 accord between the Holy See and East Timor. Pope Francis named him president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy on October 11, 2019. He is the second American to lead the school.
