Giacomo Lercaro
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Giacomo Lercaro (28 October 1891 – 18 October 1976) was an
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
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 ...
who served as Archbishop of Ravenna from 1947 to 1952, and
Archbishop of Bologna The Archdiocese of Bologna (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Italy. The cathedra is in the Bologna Cathedral, cathedral church of San Pietro, Bologna. The current archbishop is ...
from 1952 to 1968.
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
made him a cardinal in 1953.


Biography


Early life and ordination

Giacomo Lercaro was born in Quinto al Mare,
Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
, as the eighth of nine children. He came from a family of seamen, and two of his brothers, Amedeo and Attilio, also entered religion. From 1902 to 1914, Lercaro attended the archdiocesan
seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...
in Genoa. He was
ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
a
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
on 25 July 1914 by Archbishop Ildefonso Pisani, and four months later, in November, travelled to Rome to study at the
Pontifical Biblical Institute The Pontifical Biblical Institute (also known as Biblicum) is a research and postgraduate teaching institution specialised in biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies located in Rome. Founded in 1909 by Pope Pius X, it is an institution of the ...
.


Pastoral and theological work

When Italy entered
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Lercaro was forced to change posts and become a military
chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...
until the war ended in 1918. In 1918, he became prefect of the Seminary of Genoa, where his brother Amedeo was rector, and would remain in that post until 1923. He also served as substitute professor of
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
(1921–1923) and
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of
sacred scripture The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...
and patrology (1923–1927). In 1927 he became a teacher of religion in
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
and became involved in numerous student movements in the Genoa district.


Archbishop

He received his episcopal consecration on 19 March 1947 from Archbishop Giuseppe Siri, with Archbishop Angleo Rossini and Bishop Francesco Canessa serving as
co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churche ...
. In the
consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistor ...
of 12 January 1953, Lercaro was created
Cardinal-Priest A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. ...
of
Santa Maria in Traspontina The Church of Santa Maria del Carmelo in Traspontina (Saint Mary of Carmel Across the Bridge) is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, run by the Carmelites. The bridge referred to is the Ponte Sant'Angelo. The church is on the Via della Con ...
by Pius XII.


Cardinal

During his early years as a cardinal, Lercaro established his first contacts with Angelo Roncalli and became well known for the way in which he turned his episcopal palace into an
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
. Although he had been seen by Vatican watchers ever since 1953 as a possible successor to Pius XII and was listed by ''
l'Osservatore Romano ''L'Osservatore Romano'' is the daily newspaper of Vatican City which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not an official publication, a role ...
'' as a ''
papabile ( , , ; plural: ; ) is an unofficial Italian term coined by Vaticanologists and used internationally in many languages to describe a Catholic man—in practice, always a cardinal—who is thought of as a likely or possible candidate to be ...
'', his reputation as the most idiosyncratic of all the cardinals and the desire for a transitional pontiff saw him passed over in favor of Roncalli in 1958. A friend of the
Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
and piduist Umberto Ortolani, who had grown up economically and politically in
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, he was one of the first members of the Catholic hierarchy to establish a dialogue with the
Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
.it Rossend Domènech Matilló, ''Marcinkus. L'Avventura delle Finanze Vaticane'', Tullio Pironti Editore, tr. it. Jordi Minguell e Luciana Zigiotti, series "Testimonianze", Tipo-lito SAGRAF, Naples February 1988, 1st edition, p. 99. Generally considered ''papabile'' in the 1963 papal conclave closest to the vision of John XXIII, Lercaro, however, was considered too liberal by most of his fellow cardinal electors to be elected; Giovanni Battista Montini ultimately won. Although Cardinal Lercaro did much vital work in implementing 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 ...
after it closed in 1965, his advancing age saw him gradually disappear from prominence within the Church as the 1960s drew to a close. On 12 February 1968, Cardinal Lercaro was forced to step down from his position as Archbishop of Bologna and in 1971, he lost his right to participate in any future conclave upon reaching the age of eighty according to the then-recent
motu proprio In law, (Latin for 'on his own impulse') describes an official act taken without a formal request from another party. Some jurisdictions use the term for the same concept. In Catholic canon law, it refers to a document issued by the pope on h ...
''
Ingravescentem aetatem ''Ingravescentem aetatem'' () is a document issued by Pope Paul VI, dated 21 November 1970. It is divided into eight chapters. The Latin title is taken from the incipit, and translates to 'advancing age'. It established a rule that only cardinal ...
''.


Death

Lercaro died from cardiac arrest in Bologna, ten days short of his 85th birthday. He was buried in the metropolitan cathedral of that city.


Views


Anti-fascism

His involvement in these student movements gave Lercaro a great interest in engaging Catholic theology with modern culture, and during the war he became one of the most prominent anti-fascists within the Church, preaching steadfastly against
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
and offering support in his home for those persecuted by
Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...
—most notably for
Italian Jews Italian Jews (; ) or Roman Jews (; ) can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in Italy, or, in a narrower sense, to mean the Italkim, an ancient community living in Italy since the Ancient Roman era, who use the It ...
whose persecution began as a result of Italy's collaboration with
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 ...
. At one point during
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 ...
, Lercaro was forced to operate under the alias of "Father Lorenzo Gusmini" and live in a vacant monastery cell to avoid being killed by Nazi collaborators.


Anti-communism

Lercaro's reputation as an outspoken critic of communism is believed to be a contributing factor in
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
's decision to make him the first Archbishop of Ravenna (31 January 1947) and then the twentieth
Archbishop of Bologna The Archdiocese of Bologna (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Italy. The cathedra is in the Bologna Cathedral, cathedral church of San Pietro, Bologna. The current archbishop is ...
(19 April 1952), both considered among the largest Italian cities under communist rule.


Second Vatican Council

Even though Lercaro felt that Pope John was moving much too quickly when he first announced 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 ...
in late 1959, he later sat on its board of presidency and became regarded as one of the main architects of the council's
liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...
reforms.


Church of the poor

Cardinal Lercaro was also the first to popularize the theory of a "Church of the poor" that developed further in Latin America during the 1970s. During his tenure as archbishop of
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, where the most popular political party was the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
, he tried to build a dialogue with the members of this party.


See also

* Umberto Ortolani


References


External links


Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church biography




''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
''. 30 March 1953.
"Who Fired the Cardinal?"
''Time''. 13 December 1968. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lercaro, Giacomo Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII Lercaro, Giacomo Cardinal Lercaro, Giacomo Cardinal Clergy from Genoa 20th-century Italian cardinals Participants in the Second Vatican Council Roman Catholic archbishops of Bologna 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops Italian military chaplains World War I chaplains Pontifical Biblical Institute alumni