Fernando Filoni (born 15 April 1946) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who serves as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

[1] Pope John Paul II appointed Filoni as apostolic nuncio to Iraq and Jordan on 17 January 2001, naming him titular Archbishop of Volturnum.

[3] Archbishop Filoni defended the freedom of the Catholic Church in Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein and – in line with the Pope's position – opposed the US invasion of the country in 2003.

[6] When Mario Vargas Llosa visited him in Baghdad in 2003, he described Filoni as "small, astute, tough as nails, talkative and an expert on emergencies", who described sadly how, just as predicted, it was "incredibly difficult to administer the peace".

He expressed mixed feelings towards the new constitution, which he described as both a "positive step towards normalization in the country" and "contradictory in some areas",[8] and supported the peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims.

[12] In his August 2018 "Testimony", Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò reported that on 25 May 2008 he had sent Filoni a summary of information provided by an ex-priest named Gregory Littleton who attested to sexual abuse of priests and seminarians by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick along with the information included in Richard Sipe's recently published "Statement for Pope Benedict XVI" on McCarrick's sexual misconduct.

[14] On 10 May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Filoni Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Vatican department in charge of administering mission territories, in succession to Ivan Cardinal Dias, who had reached retirement age and had health problems.