BUCCERONI, GENNARO. — Theologian, born in Naples on 22 April 1841, he entered the Society of Jesus on 7 September 1856 and died in Rome on 18 February 1918. Forced by the political upheavals of 1860 to leave Italy with his confrères, he pursued studies in philosophy and theology in Belgium. After spending several years teaching these disciplines to students of the Society, in 1884 he was called to Rome to teach Moral Theology at the Gregorian University. He held the chair for 33 uninterrupted years (1885–1918), during which he never lacked that sacred enthusiasm for teaching and an extraordinary power of communication that assured him success. He was consultor to various ecclesiastical dicasteries and a member of the commission for the new Code of Canon Law. The Norms of 1901, which until the Code remained a general model for the Constitutions of new religious institutes, were largely drafted by him.
Among his numerous writings we may mention: Commentarius in constitutionem Benedicti XIV: Sacramentum Paenitentiae (Louvain 1884, 2nd ed., Rome 1888); Commentarius de sacramentorum causalitate (Paris 1884); Commentarius de Beata Virgine Maria (ibid. 1895); Commentarii de actibus humanis (Rome 1906); De natura theologiae moralis (ibid. 1910). His principal and most meritorious work, however, remains Institutiones theologiae moralis, which went through six editions (2 vols., ibid. 1892; 6th ed., 4 vols., ibid. 1915), in which sound doctrine is consistently grounded in documentary sources. Of an ascetical character are: Commentarii de SS. Corde Iesu (3rd ed., ibid. 1890); Spiritual Exercises (ibid. 1901, 4th ed., ibid. 1931); The Blessed Virgin Mary (ibid. 1904).