Carlo Confalonieri
Carlo Confalonieri (25 July 1893 – 1 August 1986) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops from 1967 to 1973, and dean of the College of Cardinals from 1977 until his death. Confalonieri was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958.
Carlo Confalonieri
12 December 1977
1 August 1986
- Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina (1972–1986)
- Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia (1977–1986)
18 March 1916
by Andrea Ferrari
4 May 1941
by Pope Pius XII
15 December 1958
by Pope John XXIII
- Cardinal-Priest (1958–1972)
- Cardinal-Bishop (1972–1986)
Seveso
Italian
- Archbishop of L'Aquila (1941–1950)
- Titular Archbishop of Nicopolis ad Nestum (1950–1958)
- Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities (1950–1958)
- Cardinal-Priest of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura (1958–1972)
- Archpriest of the Liberian Basilica (1959–1973)
- President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (1961–1967)
- Secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation (1961–1965)
- President of the Commission of Cardinals for the Pontifical Shrines of Pompeii and Loreto (1962–1969)
- Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops (1965–1967)
- Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops (1967–1973)
- President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (1969–1973)
- President of the Pontifical Commission for the Pastoral of Emigration and Tourism (1970–1973)
- Cardinal Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals (1974–1977)
Regnum tuum Domine (Your kingdom, Lord)
His Eminence
Your Eminence
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Confalonieri was born in Seveso. His father was a cabinet-maker.[1] Carlo was baptized by Fr. Ambrogio Sirtori the next day, on 26 July. Confirmed on 13 February 1901, Confalonieri received his first Communion on 5 May 1904. He entered the seminary in Seveso in 1904, and then archdiocesan seminary of Monza in 1909. After studying at a Milanese lyceum, he went to Rome to attend the Pontifical Seminary Ss. Ambrogio e Carlo and the Pontifical Gregorian University (from where he obtained his bachelor's degree in theology in 1913). Confalonieri then served in World War I from 1914 to 1916.
He entered the ranks of the clergy upon receiving the tonsure from Andrea Ferrari on 14 June 1912. Confalonieri was eventually ordained to the priesthood on 18 March 1916 by Cardinal Ferrari. After working in the Italian Army and Milan, he was named private secretary to Achille Ratti in 1921. Confalonieri travelled with Ratti to Rome as his attendant, or conclavist, for the 1922 papal conclave, at which the Cardinal was elected to the papacy as Pius XI. He continued to serve as Ratti's secretary until the Pope's death in 1939, and during that period he was raised to the rank of Monsignor (7 February 1922), Protonotary Apostolic (24 December 1935), and canon of St. Peter's Basilica (1935). Confalonieri was intended to be appointed Substitute, or Deputy, Secretary of State in 1937, but the position instead went to Giovanni Battista Montini. Moreover, when Pope Pius XII invited Confalonieri to become Archbishop of Modena and Abbot of Nonantola on 16 December 1939, he declined.
Episcopate[edit]
On 27 March 1941, Confalonieri was appointed Archbishop of L'Aquila by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 4 May from Pius XII himself, with Archbishop Giuseppe Migone and Bishop Alfonso de Romanis, OSA, in the Sistine Chapel. Confalonieri became Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Seminaries and Universities on 25 January 1950, and later Titular Archbishop of Nicopolis ad Nestum on 22 February of that same year.
Publication[edit]
Confalonieri published a moving tribute to Pope Pius XI with numerous valuable anecdotes.[6]