Péter Erdő

Péter Erdő (Hungarian: Erdő Péter, pronounced [ˈɛrdøː ˈpeːtɛr]; born 25 June 1952) is a Hungarian Cardinal of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. Erdő currently serves as the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, and thus Primate of Hungary. He is the Cardinal-priest assigned to the Basilica of Santa Balbina, the President of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe, and is presently the Relator General for the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Erdő has a prominent Marian devotion to Our Lady of Consolation and is fluent in Italian, Hungarian and Latin.

Biography

Erdő was born in Budapest, 25 June 1952, the first of the six children of Sándor and Mária (née Kiss) Erdő. He studied at the seminaries of Esztergom and Budapest, and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome (where he attained a doctorate in both theology and canon law). On 18 June 1975, Erdő was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop László Lékai, and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Esztergom. He worked as vicar in Dorog, and then continued his studies in Rome from 1977 to 1980. For the next eight years, he taught as a professor of theology and canon law at the Seminary of Esztergom, and held guest lectures at several foreign universities. Erdő served in the Hungarian Episcopal Conference as Secretary of the Commission of Canon Law in 1986, and later as its president in 1999. In 1988 he began teaching theology at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, serving as rector from 1998 to 2003. From 2005 he is the Great Chancellor of the university.