OBITUARY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8608, 19 December 1913, Page 7

OBITUARY

CARDINAL RAMPOLLA Dr Telegraph—Press Association— CopyHebv ROME, December 17. Cardinal Rampolla is dead. He died suddenly of angina pectoris, though he bad been in ill-health for some time. His Holiness the Pope is overwhelmed with grief. The Pbpo has ordered that the greatest honours be shown to the dead Cardinal. Cardinal Rampolla was hitherto regarded ns the Pope’s successor. [Cardinal Rampolla- (Count del Tindaro) was born on August 17th, 1843, at Polizzi, in the Sicilian diocese of Cefalu. Having completed his studies in the Capranica College at Rome, and having taken holy orders, ho studied diplomacy at the College of Ecclesiastical Nobles, and in 1875 was appointed councillor to the Papal Nunciature at Madrid. Two years later ho was recalled to Rome and appointed Secretary of the Propaganda for Eastern Affairs and for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. Consecrated titular Archbishop of Heraclea in 1885, he returned to Madrid as Nuncio, but was shortly afterwards created cardinal and appointed to the Papal Secretaryship of State in 1837. Rightly or wrongly (says the “Encyclopaedia Britannica”), he was held personally responsible for the rapprochement with France and Russia and the opposition to tho Powers of tho Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, and Italy); and this attitude had its effect on his career when Leo XIII. died. Rampolla was undoubtedly the favourite among the Pitpabili cardinals; but the veto of Austria was interposed, and the votes of tho Sacred College fell to Cardinal Sarto, who on August 4th, 1903, became Pope as Pius X. Cardinal Rampolla at once resigned his office os Secretary of State, being succeeded by Cardinal Merry del Val.] ■ BURIAL IN BT. PETER’S. (Received December 19, 1.10 a.m.) ROME, December 18. Cardinal Rampolla’s sitting-room has been transformed into a chapelle tirdente, where loading ecclesiastics have paid their last tribute. The remains will be buried m St. Peter’s on Friday.