BEDINI, GAETANO. - Cardinal, born at Senigallia on 15 May 1806, died at Viterbo on 6 Sept. 1864. After completing his studies in the local seminary, he was ordained a priest and became a member of the chapter of that diocese. Having come to Rome, Gregory XVI appointed him auditor of the nunciature of Vienna, then headed by Ludovico Altieri. In 1845 he was chosen as apostolic internuncio and extraordinary envoy to Rio de Janeiro, and there he received from G. Garibaldi, by means of a letter which he forwarded to Rome, the offer to place the Italian legion at the disposal of Pius IX and of the national cause. On 10 March 1848, on his return from Brazil, he was appointed by the Pope as substitute for Card. Antonelli at the Secretariat of State. After the end of the Roman republic, B. became in 1849 pontifical extraordinary commissioner in the four legations. He restored tranquillity in these provinces, and, appointed prolegate of Bologna, he adopted various measures to give work to the unemployed, to promote commerce through the construction of new roads, to promote agriculture, to restore artistic monuments, in particular the villa of S. Michele in Bosco. Created on 19 March 1852 titular archbishop of Thebes, he was appointed apostolic nuncio to the emperor of Brazil. Since, however, the plague was then raging in that empire, Pius IX gave B. the task of a mission to the United States to settle certain divergences that had arisen among North American Catholics and to deliver a most friendly letter from the Pope to the president of that republic. B. landed in New York on 30 June 1853, immediately continuing his journey to the federal capital, where he was received in audience by President Pierce and by Secretary of State Marcy. After stopping at Baltimore and Philadelphia, B. arrived in New York. Meanwhile an apostate priest, Gavazzi, had begun a fierce defamatory campaign against B., wrongly accused of having been cruel toward the population while he was commissioner in the legations, and of being responsible for the death of Ugo Bassi, executed by the Austrians without the knowledge of the pontifical authorities and of B. himself. A plot had even been formed to assassinate B., but he was warned by one of the conspirators about what was being plotted against his life. After visiting various dioceses, B. arrived in New Orleans in Jan. 1854, whence he embarked for Europe. In 1856 he was appointed secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Bishop of Viterbo and Toscanella from 18 March 1861, Pius IX created and published B. in the consistory of 27 Sept. 1861, cardinal of the title of S. Maria sopra Minerva.
Bibliography
Silvio Furlanti