Pietro Gasparri
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Pietro Gasparri Ph.D (May 5, 1852 – November 18, 1934) was a Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat and politician in the Roman Curia and signatory of the Lateran Pacts.
Born in Capovallazza di Ussita, province of Macerata, Gasparri served as the Apostolic delegate to Peru from 1898 to 1901, when he became a member of the Curia and returned to Rome. He was called to Rome in 1904 to take the post of Secretary for the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law, in which he spent the next 13 years in seclusion, digesting volumes of decrees and studies compiled over centuries to create the first definitive legal text in the history of Catholicism. The size of his accomplishment is seen when the work he gets done in 13 years on his own takes a team of canonists 24 years to simply revise.
He was made a Cardinal-Priest of S. Bernardo alle Terme in 1907, and served as the Cardinal Secretary of State from 1914 to 1930, when he retired to be succeeded by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli the future Pope Pius XII. From 1916 until his death he was Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, and Cardinal Pacelli also succeeded him in that position. He played a significant role in the codification of canon law, heading the effort that produced the Code of Canon Law of 1917. Beginning in 1929, he also played a significant early role in the codification of Eastern Catholic canon law.
In the early 1920s shortly after Benito Mussolini was elected to power he said "I certainly have no regrets for Italian parliamentarianism when I see Mussolini moving toward a conservative government".
His nephew was Cardinal Enrico Gasparri.
Cardinal Gasparri is the great-great-great uncle of Rocco Palmo, writer of the blog Whispers in the Loggia.
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| Preceded by Domenico Cardinal Ferrata |
Cardinal Secretary of State 1914–1930 |
Succeeded by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli |
| Preceded by Francesco Salesio della Volpe |
Camerlengo 1916–1934 |
Succeeded by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli |
