Cardinal Giuseppe Betori is a recently retired Archbishop of Florence with generally conservative views who survived an assassination attempt in 2011 but was criticized for selling Church land to Muslims in 2017.

Born on February 25, 1947, in Foligno, Italy, Betori was ordained a priest in 1970. He pursued higher education, earning a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

Throughout his career, Betori held several significant positions within the Catholic Church. He served as a professor of Sacred Scripture and Dean of the Theological Institute of Assisi, as well as director of the Catechistic Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). In 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him Secretary General of the CEI and appointed him bishop.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Betori to cardinal and he participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis. Betori also served in several Vatican departments, including the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Congregation for Catholic Education, and the Pontifical Council of the Laity. He remains a member of the Dicasteries for Clergy and for the Causes of Saints.

In 2005 Betori supported a Vatican document that banned the ordination of men who were “actively homosexual” and had “deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” stating that he believed a priestly vocation is a “gift” rather than a “right.”

In 2011, Betori survived an apparent assassination attempt when an unidentified man confronted him outside his office, shot and wounded his secretary, and waved a gun at Betori before fleeing. The motives behind the incident remain unclear.

As cardinal archbishop, in 2017 he sold Church land in Sesto Fiorentino near Florence to Muslims to build a mosque. Betori saw it positively, saying “everyone has the right to a dignified place to profess their faith” and stressed the action promoted freedom of worship. The decision drew criticism with the Jesuit expert on Islam, Father Samir Khalil Samir, calling it “madness.”

In 2024, shortly before the end of his term as archbishop, Cardinal Betori gave a homily in which he harshly criticized the city of Florence, denouncing what he called “an ill-advised desire for vice” that, according to him, was permeating the city “from the squares to the places of culture.” He highlighted several social problems that afflicted Florence, including drug use, gambling, growing poverty and the situation in the city’s prisons. The cardinal described Florence as a city “sick” with vice, prompting mixed reactions.