Gaetano Cicognani
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| Styles of Gaetano Cardinal Cicognani |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Frascati (suburbicarain) |
Gaetano Cardinal Cicognani (November 26, 1881—February 5, 1962) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura from 1954 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.
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[edit] Biography
Gaetano Cicognani was born in Brisighella to Guglielmo Cicognani and his wife Anna Ceroni. His brother, Amleto, was born over a year later in 1883. To support Gaetano and his brother, their widowed mother ran a general store[1]. Cicognani studied at the seminary in Faenza, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Gioacchino Cantagalli on September 24, 1904. He then went to Rome to attend the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare and Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.
After working in the Roman Rota and Apostolic Signatura, Cicognani taught at the Pontifical Roman Seminary and later entered the Secretariat of State in 1915. He became secretary of the Spanish nunciature on February 1, 1916, and a Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness on March 9, 1916. He was made auditor of the nunciature to Belgium on February 3, 1920.
On January 11, 1925, Cicognani was appointed Nuncio to Bolivia and Titular Archbishop of Ancyra. He received his episcopal consecration on the following February 1 from Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, with Archbishops Rafaello Rossi, OCD, and Giovanni Zonghi serving as co-consecrators, in the chapel of the Pontifical Collegio Pio-Latinoamericano in Rome. Cicognani was later named Nuncio to Peru on June 15, 1928, to Austria on June 13, 1936, and to Spain on May 16, 1938.
Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal Priest of S. Cecilia in the consistory of January 12, 1953. Cicognani returned to work in the Roman Curia upon his appointment as Prefect of the Congregation of Rites on December 7 of that same year. He became Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura on November 18, 1954, and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1958 papal conclave that selected Pope John XXIII. That December, his brother Amleto, by a special dispensation of canon law, was also elevated to the College of Cardinals. This law had so distressed Gaetano (as he felt it curbed his brother's career) that he once came close to tears when someone jokingly said, "Because of you, your brother cannot become cardinal"[2]. On December 14, 1959, he was named Cardinal Bishop of Frascati by Pope John.
He died in Rome, at age 80, and is buried in the collegiate church of S. Michele in his native Brisighella.
[edit] Trivia
- In April 1934, Archbishop Cicognani, then Nuncio to Peru, visited his brother, himself the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, whom Gaetano had not seen in seven years[3].
[edit] References
- ^ Time Magazine. The Vatican's No. 2 August 25, 1961
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ TIME Magazine. In the Churches April 30, 1934
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Tito Trocchi |
Nuncio to Bolivia 1925–1928 |
Succeeded by Carlo Chiarlo |
| Preceded by Joseph Petrelli |
Nuncio to Peru 1928–1935 |
Succeeded by Fernando Cento |
| Preceded by Enrico Sibilia |
Nuncio to Austria 1935–1938 |
Succeeded by Maurilio Silvan |
| Preceded by Federico Tedeschini |
Nuncio to Spain 1938–1953 |
Succeeded by Ildebrando Antoniutti |
| Preceded by Clemente Micara |
Prefect of the Congregation of Rites 1953–1954 |
Succeeded by Arcadio Larraona Saralegui, CMF |
| Preceded by Giuseppe Bruno |
Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura 1954–1962 |
Succeeded by Francesco Roberti |
