Francesco Marmaggi

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Francesco Cardinal Marmaggi
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence| See="Adrianopolos di Emimonto" (titular see)|"His Most Reverend Eminence" Francesco Cardinal Marmaggi (August 31, 1870 - November 3, 1949) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and former Prefect of the Congregation of the Council. He successively served as Nuncio in Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland, as well as being a special envoy to Turkey.

Biography

Francesco Marmaggi was born in Rome at a time when the Kingdom of Italy was just coming into being. He was educated at the Pontifical Roman Seminary in the city, earning a doctorates in Philosophy and Theology.

Marmaggi was ordained in Rome, on April 14, 1900, and afterwards worked in the pastoral care in the Diocese of Rome, as well as being a faculty member of the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum San Apollinare, and official in the Apostolic Penitentiary until 1904. He was created Privy chamberlain of Pope Pius X on November 15, 1907, and reappointed on September 7, 1914. Francesco Marmaggi was raised to the level of Domestic prelate on June 2, 1915.

He transferred to the Balkans when Benedict XV appointed him titular archbishop of "Adrianopolos di Emimonto" (a see created around the Turkish city of Edirne and the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast town of Sozopol). Francesco Marmaggi was also appointed the first Nuncio to the Kingdom of Romania on September 1, 1920. The appointment followed a long period of negotiations between Romania and the Papacy, and was replicated by the appointment of Dimitrie Pennescu as first Ambassador of Romania to the Holy See ("see Roman Catholicism in Romania"). [ro icon Dumitru Preda, Marius Bucur, [http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi2000/current5/mi56.htm "România - Vatican. 80 ani de relaţii diplomatice"] , in "Magazin Istoric", May 2000] He was consecrated on September 26 by Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, Cardinal Secretary of State (Luigi Maglione was consecrated in the same ceremony). He represented the Pope at the 1922 coronation of Ferdinand I as King of Greater Romania, a ceremony which took place in Alba Iulia.

Marmaggi was named extraordinary envoy to Turkey after the Greco-Turkish War. This mission was evidence of Pius XI's decision to upgrade the Papacy's diplomatic relations, a policy outlined in the "Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum" encyclical, parting with the tradition of French protection for Middle Eastern Catholics.Ernesto Pontieri, "Storia universale", Vol.7 (Part 11), Francesco Vallardi, Milan, 1959, p.81] At the time, Pope Pius also sent Celso Constantini to establish contacts with the Beiyang Government in China.

Marmaggi was transferred to be the Nuncio in Czechoslovakia in 1923, but, five years later, he was recalled to Rome as a sign of protest. This came as a result of several disagreements between the authorities in both countries, and was sparked by the Czechoslovak decision to continue celebrating "Den upálení mistra Jana Husa", a festival honoring the 14th century thinker Jan Hus, who influenced Protestant dogma and was burned at the stake as a heretic ("see Public holidays in the Czech Republic, Roman Catholicism in the Czech Republic")."Rendering unto Prague", in "Time", February 13, 1928] Martin Kitchen, "Europe Between the Wars", Pearson/Longman, London, 2006, p.207. ISBN 058289414X] Joseph Rothschild, "East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars", University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1992, p.107-108. ISBN 0295953578]

Francesco Marmaggi left Prague on that day (July 6, 1925), after he repeatedly warned President Tomáš Masaryk, Premier Antonín Švehla and Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš not to attend the ceremonies, whereas the three officials reputedly argued that they were going to take part in the festival as private persons. Marmaggi's protest was echoed by the Catholic People's Party, who issued criticism of President Masaryk. As a result of his departure, Czechoslovakia cut off diplomatic links with the Papacy.

Marmaggi then served as Nuncio in Poland from 1928, being created and proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of S. Cecilia in the consistory of December 16, 1935 by Pius XI. Two years later, alongside Cardinals Maglione, Pietro Boetto, Nicola Canali, Mario Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano, Alberto di Jorio, Giovanni Mercati, Raffaele Rossi, Carlo Salotti, Federico Tedeschini and Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant, he sat on a papal commission analyzing the situation created by the Spanish Civil War, and the implications the conflict had on the Roman Catholic clergy in Spain.Gonzalo Redondo, "Historia de la Iglesia en España, 1931-1939", Ediciones Rialp, Madrid, 1993, p.291. ISBN 8432130168] According to historian Vicente Cárcel Ortí, the body was created after Pope Pius was alarmed by Nationalist leader Francisco Franco's decision to overturn Republican reforms (at a time when the zone controlled by Nationalist forces was much smaller than the Republican area).

Cardinal Marmaggi also participated in the conclave of 1939 that elected Pius XII. He left Poland in March 1939, when he was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation of the Council. Reportedly, he wanted as his successor Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the Nuncio to Turkey and Greece and future "Pope John XXIII", but his request went unanswered. [Peter Hebblethwaite, "Pope John XXIII, Shepherd of the Modern World", Doubleday, New York, 1985, p.150]

Marmaggi was Prefect until his death in 1949. A street in Rome was named in his honor ("Via Cardinale Marmaggi").

References