Born in Molfetta (Bari, Italy), on 8 June 1938, Angelo Amato was the first of four children and attended elementary schools with the Alcantaro Sisters and the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. After high school, he went to the Nautical Institute in Bari in the long-term captains section.
At the beginning of his third year of studies, in 1953, he abandoned a promising career and entered the Salesian Aspirantate at Torre Annunziata. He then completed his novitiate in Portici Bellavista from 1955 to 1956, the year in which, on 16 August, he made his first religious profession. He then went on to the San Gregorio philosophical studentate at Catania, where he attended the three years of classical high school, graduating in July 1959. Then, until 1962, he studied in Rome at the then Pontifical Athenaeum, obtaining a licentiate in Philosophy. In the meantime, having completed the period of formation within the Salesian Congregation, he made his Perpetual Profession on 28 June of the same year. He then did two years of practical training at the Salesian College at Cisternino, where he taught literature in middle school. After obtaining a licentiate in Theology at the Salesian University Faculty of Theology in Rome, he was ordained a priest on 22 December 1967.
Enrolled at the Pontifical Gregorian University, in 1974 he obtained a doctorate in Theology and was immediately called to teach the subject. In 1977 he was sent to Greece by the then Secretariat for Christian Unity, spending four months in the Athenian Jesuit residence for linguistic preparation for university enrolment. After passing the admission exam, he went to Thessaloniki as a fellow of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. His residence was the Monì Vlatadon (Vlatadon Monastery), home to the convent of Orthodox monks and the Idrima ton Paterikon Meleton (Institute of Patristic Studies), with a library specialising in Orthodox theology and a valuable microfilm collection of the manuscripts of Mount Athos. The well-known Greek patron Konstantinos Christou, who was also Minister of Education of the Greek State, was then director of Idrima.
Enrolled in the faculty of theology at the University of Thessaloniki, he followed the lectures on the history of dogmas by Jannis Kaloghirou and on systematic dogmatics by Jannis Romanidis. At the same time, he conducted research on the sacrament of penance in Greek Orthodox theology from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, the text of which Christou sought to be published in the “Análekta Vlatádon” series (1982).
Back in Rome, he taught Christology in the Faculty of Theology a the Pontifical Salesian University, of which he was dean from 1981 to 1987 and from 1994 to 1999. From 1997-2000 he was also Vice-Rector of the University. In 1988 he was sent to Washington to study the theology of religions and to complete the Christology manual. Meanwhile, he became a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue, and an advisor to the Pontifical International Marian Academy.
In 1999 he was appointed prelate secretary of the restructured Pontifical Academy of Theology and director of the new theological magazine "Path". From 1996 to 2000 he was part of the theological and historical commission for the great Jubilee Year 2000.
Appointed on 19 December 2002 as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and elected to the titular See of Sila with the personal title of Archbishop, he received Episcopal Consecration on 6 January 2003 by John Paul II in the Vatican Basilica.
On 9 July 2008 Benedict XVI called him to succeed Cardinal José Saraiva Martins as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
In addition to articles and essays in magazines and theological dictionaries, he has published numerous works, including: The Gospel of the Father (1999) , Jesus, the Lord, an essay on Christology, seventh edition (2008) Jesus, Identity of Christianity (2008), The Celibacy of Jesus (2010), Saints in the Church (2010) and Catholicism and Secularism in Contemporary Europe, (2010).
He also participated in the conclave of March 2013 that elected Pope Francis.
On 19 December of the same year, Pope Francis confirmed him "donec aliter provideatur" in the office of Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
