Fernando Chomalí Garib

Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib (born 10 March 1957) is a Chilean Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Santiago de Chile since 2023. He was previously Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago de Chile from 2006 to 2011 and Archbishop of Concepción from 2011 to 2023. He was made a cardinal in 2024.

Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib was born on 10 March 1957 in Santiago de Chile, one of five children born to Juan Chomali Celse and Vitalia Garib Aguad; he has described himself as "a descendant of a Palestinian". He studied at the Colegio de Alianza Francesa and the National Institute of Santiago. He earned a degree in civil engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1981 and then studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago beginning in 1984. He was ordained a priest on 6 April 1991 by archbishop Carlos Oviedo Cavada.

In Rome, he earned a licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy in 1993, a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1994, and a master's degree in bioethics from the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in 1998. He has worked as a parish vicar, episcopal delegate for university pastoral care, professor of moral theology and bioethics in the Faculties of Theology and Medicine of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and in the Major Seminary of Santiago; as parish priest of Santa María de la Misericordia, moderator of the Curia and president delegate of the Economic Council of the archdiocese.

He has been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2001. From 2010 to 2012 he was a member of its steering committee. His membership was most recently renewed in 2017.

On 6 April 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him titular bishop of Noba and auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Chile. He received his episcopal consecration on 3 June from Aldo Cavalli, the apostolic nuncio to Chile.

On 20 April 2011, Pope Benedict promoted him as archbishop of Concepción.

He served from March 2014 to March 2015 as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Osorno. In the final days of that assignment, he met with Pope Francis and tried without success to impress upon him the impact his appointment of Juan Barros as Osorno's new bishop was having. Chomali had long been friends with Juan Carlos Cruz, who was charging Barros with failure to protect him from sexual abuse.

On 10 September 2018, in a pastoral letter on the sexual abuse crisis, he called for the Church to cooperate fully with civil authorities: "We must obey the law because we are not above the norms that govern the country." He regretted that Church had lost its reputation as "a voice for the voiceless" and had become "for a growing percentage of the population ... a cause of scandal, of profound questioning, of much distrust and little credibility". He decried the impact of clericalism and proposed separating the offices that handle complaints of abuse from other diocesan offices and new rules to create transparency for seminaries and church judicial proceedings.