Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, Apostolic Nuncio, was born on 23 September 1925 in Sesta Godano, Italy, and was ordained a priest on 27 March 1948 for the then-diocese of Pontremoli. He entered the Holy See Diplomatic Service in 1956, and served in the Pontifical Representations in Colombia, Brazil, France, Japan and Portugal, as well as in the Council for Church Public Affairs of the Secretariat of State. Saint Paul VI, on 22 June 1974, appointed him apostolic pro-nuncio in New Zealand and apostolic delegate for the Pacific Ocean, assigning him the titular See of Zella and the personal title of Archbishop; he received episcopal ordination, conferred by the same Pontiff, the following 30 June, in the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican. Saint John Paul II sent him as Nuncio in Colombia where, together with other diplomats, he was held hostage for six weeks by guerrillas of the Movimiento 19 de Abril, and subsequently in Hungary, Moldavia and the Netherlands. From 2001 to 2015 he held the office of Prelate of the Sovereign Miliary Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the consistory of 7 December 2024, of the Deaconry of Ss. Angeli Custodi a Città Giardino.