Mario Zenari (born 5 January 1946) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been a cardinal since 2016. He has served his entire ecclesiastical career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, holding senior positions beginning in 1999. He was nuncio to Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2008 and to Syria from 2008 to 2026.
Life
Mario Zenari was born in 1946 in Rosegaferro. He was ordained a priest on 5 July 1970 in Verona from Bishop Giuseppe Carraro. To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1976.
Diplomatic career
On 7 February 1994, Pope John Paul II appointed him to several diplomatic positions as papal representative to non-governmental organizations in Vienna. And on 15 June he was given the title monsignor as a Prelate of Honour of His Holiness.
He was named Titular Archbishop of Iulium Carnicum and apostolic nuncio to Burkina Faso, Niger, and Côte d'Ivoire on 12 July 1999. He received his episcopal consecration on 25 September 1999 from Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
On 10 May 2004, he was named the nuncio to Sri Lanka. On 30 December 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him nuncio to Syria where he was stationed during the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011.
Pope Francis on 9 October 2016 announced that he would make Zenari a cardinal in the November consistory, citing his work for the "beloved and martyred Syria". He was made a Cardinal Deacon and assigned to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie alle Fornaci fuori Porta Cavalleggeri. Francis made him a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches on 23 December 2017.
Zenari participated as a cardinal elector in the 2025 papal conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV. He later bestowed the pallium on Pope Leo at his inaugural Mass.
On 2 February 2026, Pope Leo XIV accepted his resignation as nuncio to Syria.
