Alexandre Awi Mello

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Alexandre Awi Mello, born January 17, 1971, in Rio de Janeiro, is a Brazilian Catholic priest. He is a member of the Schoenstatt Fathers and serves as secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, a position Pope Francis gave him on May 31, 2017. He was previously the national director of the Schoenstatt Movement in Brazil.

Awi Mello was ordained a priest on July 7, 2001. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, earned a theology licence from the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Vallendar in 2000, and holds a Doctorate in Mariology from the University of Dayton.

He taught pastoral theology in Londrina and at the Paul VI Institute (2002–2004), and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Parana (2005–2009). From 2012 he worked at the Salesian University Centre in São Bento. In 2007 he worked with the CELAM secretariat in Aparecida.

In 2022, the 6th General Chapter of his Schoenstatt Institute elected him General Superior for a six-year term.