CATTANI, GAETANO MARIA. – Bishop, born in Modena on 12 Sept. 1793, died there on 28 Jan. 1863. Of austere and steadfast character, cultured, pious and charitable, having embraced the ecclesiastical career and held with distinction various curial offices, he was elevated to the episcopal see of Carpi, where he proved himself a loving pastor and diligent defender of the rights and prerogatives of the Church in the face of the rampant laicist jurisdictionalism.
A man of the old Italian stamp, with deep-rooted legitimist sentiments and most devoted to the Holy See, Cattani, together with many other contemporaries, discerned in the innovatory movements of his time the snares and ambiguities of French revolutionary origin, openly at odds with the ancestral cultural and social patrimony. Thus, when he came into conflict with the Piedmontese government, he was first deprived of the revenues of the episcopal table; then, despite his advanced age, together with other excellent brethren he was illegally seized at night and imprisoned. This did indeed weaken his already frail frame, but not his apostolic spirit, which remained indomitable.