Biography
Ordained priest in 1994, Msgr. Riccardo Mensuali is a member of the Missionary Priestly Fraternity of Sant’Egidio, the community founded by Andrea Riccardi to which the AEGIS circle is closely tied. His pastoral, academic and institutional work has developed along the axis that connects family, life and human ecology.
From 2012 to 2016 he served at the Pontifical Council for the Family under the presidency of Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. Following the reform of the Roman Curia, on 1 November 2016 he was appointed to the Secretariat of the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, where he remains a Curial Official and a recognised expert in bioethics and biolaw, with particular attention to end-of-life questions, family and paternity.
He is Secretary General of Fondazione Età Grande, the foundation established by Archbishop Paglia to promote a new cultural, pastoral and political vision of old age in Italy and beyond. In this role he coordinates institutional relations, research programmes and public communication of the Foundation.
Rector of the church of Santa Maria Stella Maris on the seafront of Ostia — entrusted to the local Community of Sant’Egidio — he celebrates the Sunday Eucharist and animates the pastoral life of that community. He is also a teacher and author: for Edizioni San Paolo he has published essays on affection, family and the male condition, including Leggero come l’amore (2021) and Pieno di grazia. La sfida cristiana per il maschio del nostro tempo (2025).
A frequent voice in the Italian public debate on bioethics — from the parliamentary discussion on end-of-life legislation to the demographic and spiritual condition of the elderly — he brings to the AEGIS Board a rare synthesis of pastoral closeness, canonical competence and cultural insight into the anthropological questions raised by artificial intelligence at the service of the human person.