Angelo Giacinto Scapardini

Angelo Giacinto Scapardini, O.P. (22 December 1861 – 18 May 1937) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who spent a decade preaching throughout Italy, then served as a papal diplomat in Latin America for ten years, and ended his career leading the Diocese of Vigevano from 1921 to 1937.

Biography

Angelo Giacinto Scapardini was born on 22 December 1861 in Miasino, Italy. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Novara on 20 September 1884. He became rector of the Novara seminary. He joined the Dominicans on 25 October 1899 and preached throughout Italy with great success.[1]

On 29 April 1909, Pope Pius X named him Bishop of Nusco.[2] He received his episcopal consecration in the church of San Domenico in Turin on 6 June 1909 and was installed on 31 October.[1]

On 23 September 1910, he was named titular archbishop of Damascus and Apostolic Delegate to Peru and Bolivia, a single title.[3][a] The Delegation was based in Peru and like his predecessors Scapardini visited Bolivia rarely.[5]

In Peru he was tasked with a program of ecclesiastical reform, beginning with an episcopal assembly in 1911, the erection of a central seminary in Lima, and standards for clerical behavior and education.[6][7] He also had to contend with the government's pressure to create a new diocese to promote its claims in a territorial disputed with Colombia.[8] In Bolivia, he managed difficult relations with the government over religious freedom, the separation of church and state, as well as the Bolivian president's assertion of its traditional Patronato rights, inherited from colonial Spain, to control Church appointments. Scapardini recommended the appointment of a representative of the Holy See at the level of nuncio.[9] His argument was successful. When he received his next diplomatic assignment in 1916, he was described not as Delegate but Apostolic Internuncio to Peru and Bolivia[10]

On 4 December 1916, Pope Benedict XV named him Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil.[10]

On 27 August 1921, Pope Benedict appointed him to head Diocese of Vigevano in the region where he was raised; he was allowed to retain the personal title of archbishop and was referred to as Archbishop-Bishop of Vigevano.[11]

He died on 18 May 1937 at the age of 75.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ On 10 September 1910 he had been appointed titular archbishop of Antiochia in Pisidia.[4] The 23 September assignment to Damascus is recorded as a change: "mutato titulo Antiocheno iam eidem adsignato".[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Cronaca Illustrata". Pro Familia (in Italian). 21 November 1909. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. I. 1909. p. 433. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. II. 1910. p. 742. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  4. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. II. 1910. p. 729. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  5. ^ Loughran, Elizabeth Ward (1940). "The Rôle of Catholic Culture in Bolivia". The Catholic Historical Review. 26 (1): 16–50, esp. 41. JSTOR 25013881.
  6. ^ Saranyana, Josep-Ignasi (2010). "Un plan de reforma eclesiástica para el Perú (1910–1915)". In Delgado, Mariano; Waldenfels, Hans (eds.). Evangelium und Kultur: Begegnungen und Brüche: Festschrift für Michael Sievernich SJ (in Spanish). Academic Press Fribourg. pp. 205ff. Retrieved 27 April 2020. A summary in English appears on p. 225.
  7. ^ Edwards, Lisa M. (2009). "Latin American Seminary Reform: Modernization and the Preservation of the Catholic Church". The Catholic Historical Review. 95 (2): 261–282. JSTOR 27745525.
  8. ^ Turvasi, Francesco (1988). Giovanni Genocchi and the Indians of South America, 1911-1913. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. pp. 126–136. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  9. ^ Doublet, Nicholas Joseph (2019). A politics of peace: The Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs during the pontificate of Benedict XV (1914-1922). Edizioni Studium S.r.l. Retrieved 27 April 2020.[page needed]
  10. ^ a b Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. VIII. 1916. p. 496. Retrieved 27 April 2020. Internunzio Apostolico nel Perù e Bolivia
  11. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XIII. 1921. p. 477. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  12. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XXVIIII. 1937. p. 292. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
Additional sources