Giuseppe Pizzardo

.From left to right: German Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, Giuseppe Cardinal Pizzardo, Vatican Secretary of State Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, and German ambassador Rudolf Buttmann.] Giuseppe Cardinal Pizzardo (July 13, 1877—August 1, 1970) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation for Seminaries and Universities from 1939 to 1968, and Secretary of the Holy Office from 1951 to 1959. Pizzardo was elevated to the cardinalate in 1937.infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Giuseppe Cardinal Pizzardo
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Albano (suburbicarian) |

Biography

Born in Savona, Pizzardo studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Pontifical Athenaeum "S. Apollinare", and the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy before being ordained a priest on September 19, 1903. From 1908 to 1909, he did pastoral work in Rome and served in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Pizzardo was raised to the rank of Monsignor, along with Secretary of the nunciature in Bavaria, on June 7, 1909. In the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, he was appointed: Undersecretary (1920), Substitute (1921), and Secretary (1929). He became an apostolic protonotary on January 11, 1927.

On March 28, 1930, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of "Cyrrhus", and later Titular Archbishop of "Nicaea" on the following April 22, by Pope Pius XI. Pizzardo received his episcopal consecration on April 27 of that same year from Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, with Archbishop Giuseppe Palica and Francesco Marchetti-Selvaggiani serving as co-consecrators. He was named President of the Pontifical Commission for Russia on December 21, 1934, and Assistant at the Papal Throne on January 19, 1936.

He was created Cardinal Priest of "S. Maria in Via Lata" by Pius XI in the consistory of December 13, 1937. Pizzardo was Prefect of the Congregation for Seminaries and Universities from March 14, 1939 until his resignation on January 13, 1968. He was named the Secretary of the Holy Office (the modern equivalent of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) on February 16, 1951 by Pope Pius XII, for whom he had worked many years in the Secretariat of State. He resigned on October 12, 1959. Cardinal Bishop of Albano from June 21, 1948, he attended the Second Vatican Council.

He was known as an early patron and mentor of Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, who is said to have voted for Pizzardo at the 1963 papal conclave. Though they became more distant as Montini rose in power, Pope Paul's final trip away from his summer residence before his death in August 1978 was to a memorial Mass on the anniversary of Pizzardo's death.

Pizzardo was considered to be highly conservative clergyman. During his tenure at the Holy Office, he placed a decorated French doctoral thesis, based on sex in the life of the Church, on the Index of Forbidden Books [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836269,00.html The Issue of Imprimatur] August 19, 1966] , and denounced "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene, describing the Curial officials' attitude toward the novel as "altogether adverse" [America, the National Catholic Weekly. [http://www.americamagazine.org/gettext.cfm?articleTypeID=1&textID=2311&issueID=388 'Altogether Adverse'] ] . He also denounced the French worker-priest movement [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,818923,00.html No More Pretres-Ouvriers?] September 28, 1953] [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811293,00.html End of the Worker-Priests] September 28, 1959] , and Catholic participation in Moral Re-Armament [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,807637,00.html Catholics v. M.R.A.] September 26, 1955] .

Trivia

*Pizzardo served as papal envoy to the coronation of King George VI of England on May 12, 1937.
*He was also involved in Azione Cattolica, serving on its Central Committee as Ecclesiastical Assistant in 1923 and President in 1938.
*Appointed Sub-Dean of the College of Cardinals on March 29, 1965, Pizzardo was one of the cardinal electors in the conclaves of 1939, 1958, Papal conclave, 1963.

References