Born in Giuliano Milanese on 6 March 1938 and brought up in the Milanese Church, he has strong ties with his Valtelline origins, through his mother who is from Sernio, a municipality in the Italian region of Lombardy.
In 1970, at the request of Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, his Vicar General, Bishop Ferdinando Maggioni placed the Community of San Natale under the management of the Diocese of Milan.
The parish of San Giorgio al Palazzo took care of it and Coccopalmiero was one of the first priests to serve in the community.
As of then, Don Cocco, as some of his priest friends call him, was to reside in San Giorgio for a good many years to come. Even when he moved to Rome to study, he still kept his place of residence there and carried on his busy liturgical and pastoral activities and meetings with the community as it once was. He also returned frequently to Parabiago, a town in the Province of Milan, where his family live.
Fr. Francesco is a meek, simple, good and generous man, a brilliant scholar of law related issues, always willing and someone who tends to form friendships easily with those who surround him. In Rome he lived in the Lombard Seminary and enrolled at the Gregorian University, where he graduated with a degree in Canonical Law.
With a post in the Archbishop Curia’s general legal advice service, he moved to San Giorgio, continuing his studies at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) and finally obtained a degree in Civil Law. The step up from pupil to professor came quite quickly.
Indeed, Don Coccopalmerio became a Professor in Canonical Law at the Gregorian University and in the diocesan theological Seminary. After his appointment as Attorney General, he remained in this post until his Episcopal ordination on 8 April 1993 as Auxiliary Bishop. This important role with tasks in the fields of culture and dialogue was entrusted to him by Cardinal Martini.
He worked as Pontifical Commissioner for the Company of Saint Paul between 1995 and 2006 - a post which involved missions to numerous countries across the world. On 15 February 2007 he took over from Cardinal Herranz Casado, and as President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, he was raised to the dignity of Archbishop.