Pio Laghi

Coat of arms of Pio Cardinal Laghi

Pio Cardinal Laghi (born May 21, 1922 in Castiglione di Forlì , Province Forlì-Cesena , Italy , † January 11, 2009 in Rome ) was a Cardinal Curia of the Roman Catholic Church and top diplomat of the Holy See.

Life

After attending a school in Faenza run by Salesians , Pio Laghi studied philosophy and Catholic theology at the seminary of his home diocese, Forlì . He later continued these studies in Rome, where he Alumne the Pontifical Roman Seminary was and at the Pontifical Athenaeum Lateran , where he 1942 doctor of theology doctorate was enrolled was. On April 20, 1946, he received the sacrament of ordination . In 1950, after further studies, he earned a doctorate in canon law . After training at the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy , he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1952 . He was secretary in the nunciatures in Nicaragua , the USA and India until 1964 , and from 1964 to 1969 he served in the Vatican State Secretariat for Public Affairs, now the Office for Interstate Relations.

In 1969 Pope Paul VI appointed him . the Titular Archbishop of Mauriana and ordered him to apostolic delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine . He received his episcopal ordination on June 22, 1969 by the former secretary of the Vatican State Secretariat, Amleto Giovanni Cardinal Cicognani ; Co- consecrators were the Curia Bishop and later Cardinal Agostino Casaroli and Giuseppe Battaglia , Bishop of Faenza . His office in Jerusalem coincided with the time when Israel annexed the conquered eastern part of Jerusalem after the Six Day War and the Middle East conflict erupted again in 1973 in the Yom Kippur War .

Pio Laghi visits US President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office (April 13, 1984)

Pope Paul VI Appointed him in 1973 in addition to the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio in Cyprus and Apostolic Visitator for Greece . From 1974 to 1980 - at the time of Jorge Rafael Videla's military junta  - he was Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina . Immediately after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Pope John Paul II appointed him permanent observer with the Organization of American States in Washington, DC and Apostolic Delegate with the task of establishing full diplomatic relations with the United States - which came about in March 1984 . Pio Laghi then became the first nuncio in the United States of America .

On June 28, 1991, Pope John Paul II accepted him as a cardinal deacon with the title diaconia Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in via Tuscolana in the College of Cardinals , after he had appointed him on April 6, 1990 as Pro-Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education . On July 1, 1991, he became cardinal prefect of this dicastery . In this office he was responsible for the scientific education and training of around 400,000 priests worldwide as well as for the Catholic universities and theological colleges.

From December 5, 1992 he was President of the Pontifical Oratory of St. Peter and from 1993 he was Magnus Cancellarius at the Pontifical Gregorian University . On November 15, 1999, John Paul II. Laghis accepted a petition to resign from all duties in the Roman Curia for reasons of age . From 1999 to 2002 he held the office of cardinal protodiac . In 2002 he was elevated to cardinal priest with the titular church of San Pietro in Vincoli .

Since May 8, 1993 he held the post of Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta .

In 2003 Pope John Paul II appointed him special apostolic envoy on the occasion of the Iraq war in order to enter into negotiations with President George W. Bush .

At the 2005 conclave , when Pope Benedict XVI. was elected, he did not take part because at that time he had already exceeded the maximum age of 80 years for active papal election . For a long time he himself was considered a possible candidate for the chair of Peter.

Memberships

• Council of Division II of the State Secretariat
• Congregation for the Oriental Churches
• Congregation for the Processes of Beatification and Canonization
• Congregation for Bishops
• Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
• Congregation for the Clergy
• Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
• Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legal Texts
• Honor and Devotion Grand Cross Bailli of the Order of Malta

Web links

• Laghi, Pio. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed January 9, 2017.
• Entry on Pio Laghi on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on January 9, 2017.
• domradio.de: Cardinal Laghi died at the age of 86
• His Eminence Cardinal Pio Laghi Patron of ICOC , ICOC, accessed January 11, 2009
• Interview with Pío Laghi, Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, 1978 , Clarín, Buenos Aires, December 20, 1998 (Spanish), see Friendship and Peace Treaty of 1984 between Chile and Argentina

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cardinal Pio Laghi turns 80 . ORF , May 16, 2002
2. ↑ Biography of the Cardinal Patron Pio Laghi ( Memento of December 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Order of Malta, accessed on January 11, 2009
3. ↑ Wolfgang Lechner: Who will be the successor to Pope John Paul II? In: Die Zeit , No. 21/1997
4. ↑ THE ORDER OF MALTA MORROWS THE DEAD OF CARDINAL PIO LAGHI

predecessor	Office	successor
Augustin-Joseph Sépinski OFM	Apostolic Delegate for Jerusalem and Palestine 1969–1973	William Aquin Carew
Nunciature newly established	Apostolic Pro-Nuncio in Cyprus 1973–1974	William Aquin Carew
Lino Zanini	Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina 1974–1980	Ubaldo Calabresi
Jean Jadot	Apostolic Pro-Nuncio in the United States of America 1980–1990	Agostino Cacciavillan
William Wakefield Tree	Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education Pro-Prefect 1990–1991 Prefect 1991–1999	Zenon Grocholewski
Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio	Cardinal patron of the Order of Malta 1993–2009	Cardinal Paolo Sardi
Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo	Cardinal Protodiacon 1999-2002	Cardinal Luigi Poggi