Pedro Antonio Marchetti Fedalto

Pedro Antonio Marchetti Fedalto was a Brazilian Roman Catholic prelate who led the Archdiocese of Curitiba for more than three decades and lived to the age of 100. Born on 11 August 1926 in Colonia Antonio Reboucas, in the municipality of Campo Largo, Parana, he was the eldest of seven children of Giacomo Fedalto and Corona Marchetti, farmers of Italian descent and practising Catholics. He was baptised in the colony chapel on 29 August 1926 by Fr Natal Pigatto, confirmed in 1932 by Archbishop Joao Francisco Braga of Curitiba, and received First Communion on 10 January 1937.

Encouraged toward religious life by his schoolteacher Luiz Lorenzi, who told the boy he would become a priest and spoke with his father about the seminary, Fedalto entered the Sao Jose Minor Seminary in Curitiba on 2 February 1940. He later recalled that summons as "the first surprise in life." After finishing at the minor seminary in 1946 he studied philosophy (1947-1949) and theology (1950-1953) at the Central Seminary of the Immaculate Conception of Ipiranga in Sao Paulo. A lifelong companion in those formative years was fellow seminarian Antonio Agostinho Marochi, later a bishop.

He was ordained a priest on 6 December 1953 by Archbishop Manoel da Silveira d'Elboux at the Cathedral Basilica Minor of Our Lady of Light in Curitiba, together with several classmates who would also become bishops or prominent priests. Two days later he celebrated his first solemn Mass at the Chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Colonia Antonio Reboucas, the community of his birth. Early assignments included chaplain to the College of the Sisters of Divine Providence, then work as professor of liturgy and sacred art and spiritual director at the Queen of the Apostles Major Seminary, as well as secretary to Archbishop d'Elboux, chancellor of the archdiocese and vicar general. He liked to say that a teacher must love the students, citing St Marcellin Champagnat, and that "for piety there are no holidays."

On 30 May 1966 Pope Paul VI appointed him Titular Bishop of Castellum Tatroportus and Auxiliary Bishop of Curitiba. He received episcopal consecration on 28 August 1966 from Apostolic Nuncio Sebastiano Baggio, with Archbishop d'Elboux and Auxiliary Bishop Jeronimo Mazzarotto as co-consecrators. His episcopal motto was Veritatem in caritate, "Truth in charity," drawn from Ephesians 4:15. After Archbishop d'Elboux died he served as diocesan apostolic administrator in 1970. On 28 December 1970 he was named Metropolitan Archbishop of Curitiba, and he was installed as the fourth archbishop on 28 February 1971. In his installation homily he preached that practising charity means uniting rather than dividing, gathering rather than scattering, and serving rather than being served.

As archbishop he steered Curitiba through the pastoral renewal that followed the Second Vatican Council. He decentralised the archdiocese into pastoral areas and sectors, published pastoral directories and manuals, and led a long synod between 1987 and 1994 under the theme of being Church, walking together and taking part. The synod hymn's refrain, "Agora e tempo de ser Igreja, caminhar juntos, participar," later spread across Brazil. He created dozens of new parishes (commonly tallied as 74 in public accounts), ordained many diocesan priests, welcomed religious congregations, and carried out hundreds of pastoral visits. Highlights of his tenure included the Popular Holy Missions of 1975 and 2000, and the visit of Pope John Paul II to Curitiba on 5 and 6 June 1980, which he later called the greatest grace granted to the archdiocese and to Parana. In 1998 some 12,352 young people were confirmed in a gathering of about 75,000 at the Pinheirao stadium.

He also served for many years as president of the South Region II of the Brazilian bishops' conference (CNBB) and was Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Parana (PUCPR) from 1970 to 2004. Early in his archiepiscopate he invited the Marist Brothers to assume direction of the then Catholic University of Parana. In 1984 he petitioned the Holy See for the pontifical title; when it was granted in 1985 he insisted the honour was a commitment to form leaders of a more human, fraternal and Christian society. He installed the University Parish of Jesus the Master that same year. PUCPR later awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2008.

Having reached the age limit, he asked to leave office, and on 19 May 2004 Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation. He was succeeded by Archbishop Moacyr Jose Vitti. Over a long life he met four popes personally (Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis) and lived through nine pontificates. A devoted son of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, he closed his reminiscences asking her to accompany him at the hour of death with her scapular.

In retirement he remained a respected elder of the Church in Parana. He completed 100 years of age on 11 August 2026, becoming one of Brazil's few centenarian bishops. Dom Pedro Fedalto died in Curitiba on the afternoon of Saturday, 26 September 2026. The Archdiocese of Curitiba announced his death; no cause was published. Curitiba's mayor, Eduardo Pimentel, and the government of Parana decreed three days of official mourning. A funeral Mass with the body present was set for 28 September 2026 at the Cathedral Basilica, with burial in the cathedral crypt. PUCPR also declared three days of mourning for its former Grand Chancellor.