Scola was born in 1941 in the Diocese of Milan. Most recently he has been rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, after having been bishop of Grosseto until 1995.
Archbishop Scola, a theologian of international renown — he was a professor at the Catholic University of Fribourg and the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family of the Lateran University — is one of the closest disciples of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation Movement.