Gaetano Alibrandi (14 January 1914 – 3 July 2003) of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

was a senior papal diplomat and former Personal Secretary to Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini (later

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

Biography

Born at Castiglione di Sicilia in the

Province of Catania The province of Catania (; ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Its capital was the city of Catania. It had an area of and a total population of about 1,116,917 as of 31 December 2014. Historically known also as ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, Alibrandi was ordained priest on 1 November 1936 and obtained a Doctorate on Divinity from the

Pontifical Lateran University The Pontifical Lateran University (; ), also known as Lateranum, is a pontifical university based in Rome. The university also hosts the central session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The university ...

and a Doctorate on Civil and Canon Law. He entered the

Diplomatic Corps The diplomatic corps () is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body. The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission ( ambassadors, high commis ...

of the Holy See in 1941, serving for five years in the

Vatican Secretariat of State The Secretariat of State (Latin: ''Secretaria Status''; Italian: ''Segreteria di Stato'') is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the central papal governing bureaucracy of the Catholic Church. It is headed by the Cardinal Secretary of Stat ...

and was then a staff member in the apostolic nunciatures in Italy and Turkey before coming to Ireland as a counsellor at the Apostolic Nunciature for two years from 1954–6. Alibrandi later described his first Irish posting as ‘a spiritual bath.’

Ordained Archbishop

In 1961 he received episcopal consecration as

titular Archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Binda by Fernando Cardinal Cento upon his appointment as Nuncio of Chile (1961), followed quickly by similar appointments in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

(1963). As Apostolic Nuncio to Chile, he led the Chilean delegation to the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

Nuncio to Ireland

He was appointed Papal Nuncio to Ireland on 19 April 1969, shortly after the outbreak of

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

. This was a challenging time for the Church in Ireland then led by Cardinal William Conway as it adjusted to both the internal changes generated by the Second Vatican Council and the wider social changes. Alibrandi was ill-suited to coping with these changes and in particular the violence in Northern Ireland. It is widely assumed that he saw to it that the more overtly nationalist Tomas Ó Fiaich was appointed to Armagh in 1977 after the death of Cardinal Conway. The journalist and author Ed Moloney in his book on the IRA asserts that Alibrandi's "sympathy for the IRA was a constant source of friction with the government in London." Alibrani played a major role in the 1971 decision by the Vatican to accept the resignation of

John Charles McQuaid John Charles McQuaid, C.S.Sp. (28 July 1895 – 7 April 1973), was the Catholic Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin between December 1940 and January 1972. He was known for the unusual amount of influence he had over successive gover ...

as archbishop of Dublin (to the shock of McQuaid, who expected that he would be allowed to remain for some time after the normal retirement age of 75). In many of the episcopal appointments made while Alibrandi was nuncio, he favoured doctrinally 'sound', right-of-centre priests and in the case of the Archdiocese of Dublin picked two priests Kevin McNamara and

Desmond Connell Desmond Connell (24 March 1926 – 21 February 2017) was an Irish cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He was an Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland. Cardinal Connell was one of a number of senior clergy to have been heavily criticise ...

who were notably ill-suited. In a profile of the Archbishop at the time of his retirement T.P. O'Mahony observed in The Tablet "although he rarely gave interviews, and never overtly intervened in policy-making or in public controversies, it is beyond dispute that Archbishop Alibrandi wielded considerable influence behind the scenes." The respected academic and church historian Dermot Keogh assessing this period argues that "there was a general view that the best candidates had not been appointed...that a number were not up to the job, that most of the appointees shared a defensive attitude to matters of church and state
The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholicism Since 1950 in the United States, Ireland, and Quebec
He had “a very testy relationship with three Taoisigh –

Jack Lynch John Mary Lynch (15 August 1917 – 20 October 1999) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979. He was Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 to 1979, Leader of the Opposition from 1973 to 1977, ...

Liam Cosgrave Liam Cosgrave (13 April 1920 – 4 October 2017) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977, Leader of Fine Gael from 1965 to 1977, Leader of the Opposition from 1965 to 1973, Minister for External Affairs fro ...

and

Garret FitzGerald Garret Desmond FitzGerald (9 February 192619 May 2011) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist, and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 an ...

”. It was reported in September 2012 during the second Dr Garret FitzGerald Memorial Lecture at

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

by Seán Donlon, former secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs, that "It came to our epartment of Foreign Affairsattention that a substantial amount in three bank accounts in Dublin eld by the archbishopwere way in excess of what was needed to run the nunciature. The source f the moneyappeared to be

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." Donlon went on to say "Because of its size, we thought it appropriate to ask if the funds belonged to the Holy See". When contacted for an answer, Dr Alibrandi "quickly answered ‘no’ and that they belonged to ‘family’. When it was pointed out to him that the money was then liable under Irish taxation law to DIRT, he said he would retire shortly and the accounts would be closed."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alibrandi, Gaetano 1914 births 2003 deaths Participants in the Second Vatican Council 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops Apostolic nuncios to Ireland Apostolic nuncios to Lebanon Apostolic nuncios to Chile Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy alumni Bishops appointed by Pope John XXIII