Andrea Cassulo (30 November 1869 – 9 January 1952) was an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and a representative of the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

in Egypt, Canada, Romania and Turkey from 1921 to 1952.

Biography

He was born in Castelletto d'Orba in 1869 and ordained a priest in 1893 in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. In 1914, he was appointed bishop of Fabriano e Matelica. In 1921, he became the titular archbishop of Leontopolis in Augustamnica.Catholic-hierarchy.org
/ref> He was the apostolic delegate to Egypt from 1921 to 1927. He was the apostolic delegate to Canada from 1927 to 1936.

Nuncio to Romania

Cassulo served as Papal nuncio in Romania during the period of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. While the country was never occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, the regime of Marshall Ion Antonescu aligned itself with Hitler, and assisted the Nazi Holocaust.

Efforts of behalf of Jews

In 1944, the Chief Rabbi of Bucharest praised the work of Cassulo on behalf of Romania's Jews: "the generous assistance of the Holy See… was decisive and salutary. It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the warmth and consolation we experienced because of the concern of the supreme Pontiff, who offered a large sum to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews — sufferings which had been pointed out to him by you after your visit to Transnistria. The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance." According to Morely, as nuncio to Bucharest, Cassulo's "early efforts on behalf of Jews concerned almost exclusively those who had been baptized Catholic".John Morley (1980) ''Vatican diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943''. New York. p. 25. He passed on to the Vatican in 1939, but did not pursue, a project to emigrate the 150,000 converted Jews of Romania to Spain. From 1940 to 1941, his primary diplomatic responsibility was to protest various pieces of legislation insofar as they infringed on the rights of baptized Jews, particularly with respect to intermarriage and attendance of baptized Jews to Catholic schools, which were protected by the Romanian

concordat A concordat () is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 Overall, Cassulo was "reluctant to intervene, except for the baptized Jews". Morley argues that "his Jewish contemporaries might have exaggerated, in those years of crisis, his influence and efforts on their behalf" based on the difference between Jewish sources and the Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale">ADSS.

Diplomatic protests

In his study of the rescue of Jews during

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, Jewish historian Martin Gilbert wrote that, Cassulo "appealed directly to Marshall Antonescu to limit the deportations f Jews to Nazi concentration campsplanned for the summer of 1942. His appeal was ignored; hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were transported to Transnistria." Cassulo made three protests to Antonescu: on 20 November 1940, 2 December 1940 and 14 February 1941.Morley, 1980, p. 26.

Jewish converts

Five days after the last of Cassulo's 1941 diplomatic protests, Antonescu informed the nuncio of his signing a decree allowing students of any ethnic origin to attend their own religious schools. Morely wrote that "much more worrisome to the Vatican" was a March 18, 1941, decree forbidding the conversion of Jews to Christianity, with severe penalties for Jews attempting to convert and cooperating priests.Morley, 1980, p. 27. Again, Cassulo protested that this violated the concordat, but the Romanian government replied that the decree did not because it would only affect the "civil status" of baptized Jews. It became obvious to Cassulo that the motivations of converts were not solely religious, and he wrote to Rome: "it is clear that human motives cannot be denied, but it is likewise true that Providence also uses human means to arrive at salvation".Morley, 1980, p. 30. Nationwide statistics on Jewish baptisms are unclear, but they certainly rose to the level that the Romanian government became concerned. According to Morley, although Cassulo was "possibly the most active of the Vatican diplomats in matters concerning the Jews", his protests were limited to violations of the concordat, and thus to the rights of converted Jews. Morley judges him sincere in his belief that it was "God's plan" that the Holocaust increase the number of converts.Morley, 1980, p. 46.

Last years

Cassulo was named Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey on 3 June 1947. He died on 9 January 1952 by a heart attack, exactly after a visit paid to him by orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras.Γεώργιος-Σπυρίδων Μάμαλος
Το Πατριαρχείο Κωνσταντινουπόλεως στο επίκεντρο διεθνών ανακατατάξεων (1918-1972): εξωτερική πολιτική και οικουμενικός προσανατολισμός
2009, page 270

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassulo, Andrea 1869 births 1952 deaths Apostolic nuncios to Romania Apostolic nuncios to Egypt Apostolic nuncios to Canada People from the Province of Alessandria