At the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum of Rome he was awarded a Ph.D. in sacred theology, the highest level of Church postgraduate studies, with the maximum possible grade of summa cum laude (1978) with the dissertation La gracia como participación de la naturaleza divina según Santo Tomás de Aquino.

On 19 July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI made him a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

In 2018, he declared that "those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese", praising China's emphasis on "the common good".

[3][4][5][6][7] Father Bernardo Cervellera, in an editorial in AsiaNews, wrote: "The bishop does not seem to see the slums of Beijing and Shanghai, the expulsion of migrants, the oppression of religious freedom.

[11] He was decorated as Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic (1999), official of honour of the Légion d’Honneur of France (2000), Grão Mestre da Ordem de Rio Branco of Brazil (2004), official of Austria (2004) and knight of Chile (2006).