G. Card. Pizzardo

Dino Staffa, Secretary

Most Reverend Exceflency

Antonio de Castro Mayer

Bishop of Campos

            Giuseppe Cardinal Pizzardo was born in Savona, Italy, in I 877, and was ordained in 1903. He was named an archbishop in 1930 and a cardinal in 1937.

            His service to the Church spanned the reigns of five popes. He served on several congregations, commissions. and in other capacities, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the commissions for biblical studies and the revision of the Code of Canon Law. Serving also in the Vatican diplomatic corps, he was one of the key negotiators of the 1929 Lateran Treaty.

            Although chairman of one of the preparatory Commissions for the Second Vatican Council, he took no part in the Council's debate.

            Cardinal Pizzardo died in Rome in 1970 at 93, the oldest of the 131-member College of Cardinals.

            Archbishop Dino Staffa was born in Fabriago, Italy, in 1906. He was ordained for his native diocese of Imola in 1929, hut soon after was sent to Rome for higher studies. He served in various Roman Congregations. as a professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical Lateran University. and on various Vatican courts, including as Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura from 1969 until his death.

            He was raised to the episcopate in 1960 and created a cardinal in 1967.

            His writings include commentaries on Canon Law, histories of the Pontifical and other ecclesiastical academies and of Apostolic delegations, and works on the freedom of Catholic schools.

Cardinal Staffa died in 1977.