He worked in the nunciatures in Colombia, Brazil, Japan and France, as well as in the International Relations Department of the Holy See's Secretariat of State.

[4] He received episcopal consecration on 30 June from Pope Paul; the co-consecrators were archbishops Giovanni Benelli, deputy for the General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, and Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

[6] On 27 February 1980, Acerbi was taken hostage along with more than a dozen other diplomats and more than forty others, when communist guerillas belonging to the 19th of April Movement assaulted the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bogota.

[12] On 27 February 2001, Pope John Paul II named François Bacqué to succeed him in that position, ending his career as an active nuncio.

[19] On 7 December 2024, as announced in October[20], Pope Francis made Acerbi a cardinal, creating him Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Angeli Custodi a Città Giardino.