OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 22011, 10 May 1933, Page 5

OBITUARY

CARDINAL CERRETTI. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Rome, May 8. The death is announced of Cardinal Cerretti from diabetes. Bonaventura Cerretti, Nuncio and Cardinal, was born in Orvieto in June, 1872. He was trained at a seminary in Rome and dedicated to the priesthood in March, 1895, later taking his doctorate in philosophy and literature. In 1904 he began his diplomatic career as secretary to the Papal Delegation in Mexico and in 1906 was transferred to a post in Washington. Appointed titular Archbishop of Philippopolic in July, 1914, he was sent in November of the same year as the first Papal Delegate to Australia and New Zealand. His bishopric was later changed to that of Corinth. In August, 1917, he was recalled to Rome to become secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs as successor to Monsignor Pacelli. At the end of May, 1921, he went as Nuncio to Paris, where he rendered great -service to the cause of religious peace during a difficult period, his work including missions to the Rhineland, the Saar and Morocco. Strict Catholics complained that he preferred the political to the clerical world. He certainly showed a remarkable gift for mastering the intricacies of French politics and managed to be on good terms with every Cabinet. Eventually his attitude on the Alsatian school question was criticized in church circles and some attributed his recall to that fact. On November 17, 1925, he was presented with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour by the French Government —an unusual _ distinction which preceded his elevation to the cardinalate at the Consistory on December 14 and marked the impending close of his nunciature in France. On December 21 he received his cardinal’s hat from the hands of the French President at a gathering of Ministers, State officials and ecclesiastics. Cardinal Cerretti acted as Papal Legate to the Eucharistic Congress at Chicago in 1926 and to that at Sydney in 1927. In October, 1931, he succeeded Cardinal Ragonesi as Prefect of the Signature Apostolica, the Papal tribunal.