[3][a] His mother Elena Cazzaniga, originally from Villasanta in Brianza, earned a degree in literature at the Catholic University of Milan and taught high school before leaving to raise their four children, two boys and two girls.

From 23 April 2010 to 2013 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Communication and Culture Foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference, which manages its media initiatives.

[8][11] When La Spezia and Lunigiana suffered catastrophic flooding in October 2011, he visited the affected areas and sent his seminarians to assist relief efforts.

[20][21][22] On 18 September 2012, Pope Benedict included him on his list of papal appointees to participate in the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization in October.

[27] In July 2014, he radically downsized the Studium Generale Marcianum, an education and research institute, established by his predecessor Angelo Scola.

Moraglia used the occasion to review the Marcianum anew in light of the pressures it placed on Church finances and the way corporate support placed inevitable restraints on its freedom.

He took this action after Scola declined to provide financial support and having coordinated his decision with officials of the Roman Curia and informed Pope Francis.

[28][29][30] He established the practice of weekday visits to each of the 128 parishes of the lagoon diocese[31][32] which begins the week after its entry and completes in December 2014,[33] celebrating Mass and meeting the faithful in the daily life of the weekdays[34][35] It establishes, as already in La Spezia, the practice of diocesan Marian pilgrimages on the first Saturday of the month.

On 26 October 2013 he started the mission of street evangelizers giving eighty boys the mandate to reach the pockets of greatest degradation of the diocese.

[36][37][38] It dedicates particular pastoral care to those in conditions of greater fragility, both personal (young people, prisoners, women victims of violence) and linked to the economic crisis that marks the diocesan territory[39][40][41][42][43][44] and strengthens the structures of Caritas.

[45] In 2016 he reorganized the patriarchate, organizing its 128 parishes into 40 groupings or "pastoral alliances" based on geographic access that supports collaboration.

He demanded "effective action plans" from officials he found disconnected from the city's shrinking population who "suffer not because they are losing everything, but because of the feeling of being abandoned".

[58][59] In June 2019, he attacked the Salvini government's immigration policies, called welcoming refugees "a duty", and characterized the construction of physical barriers as "illusory" and "out of touch with reality".