BUCCERONI, GENNARO. - Theologian, b. in Naples on 22 April 1841, entered the Society of Jesus on 7 September 1856, d. in Rome on 18 February 1918. Forced by the political upheavals of 1860 to leave Italy with his confreres, he devoted himself in Belgium to the study of philosophy and theology. After spending some years teaching these disciplines to the 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 was never lacking in that sacred enthusiasm for teaching and an extraordinary communicative power that assured him success. He was a consultor of 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 schema for the Constitutions of new religious institutes, were for the most part drafted by him.
Among his numerous writings we recall: 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). There remains, however, as his principal and most meritorious labor: Institutiones theologiae moralis, which had six editions (2 vols., ibid. 1892; 6th ed., 4 vols., ibid. 1915) and where solid doctrine always rests on documents. Of an ascetical character: Commentarii de SS. Corde Iesu (3rd ed., ibid. 1890); Esercizi spirituali (ibid. 1901, 4th ed., ibid. 1931); La Beata Vergine Maria (ibid. 1904).
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Edmondo Lamalle