In 1938, Dell'Acqua entered the Roman Curia, as a staff member of the Secretariat of State, whilst performing pastoral work in Rome until 1950. During this time, he sowed skepticism over reports of the mass-murder of Jews in the Holocaust sent by Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, claiming that Jews "easily exaggerate" and that "Orientals" (that is, Eastern Catholics) "are really not an example of honesty".[1]
Dell'Acqua died from a sudden heart attack at the entrance of the Rosary Basilica during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, at age 68. Initially buried in his family's tomb at the Sesto Calende cemetery, his remains were transferred on 31 August 1997, to the parish church in Sesto Calende where he had been ordained to the priesthood.
Trivia
In 1954, then Monsignor Dell'Acqua received a phone call from an ill Pope Pius XII, who was suffering from gastric problems, and quickly called for the latter's physician, Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi.[3]