GASPARRI, PIETRO. — Cardinal, Secretary of State to two popes, principal architect of the codification of the CIC and of the Lateran Pacts.
Born at Capovallizza (municipality of Usain [Macerata]) on 5 May 1852; died in Rome on 18 November 1934. He began his studies (1861) at the Seminary of Nepi, from which he transferred (1870) to the Roman Seminary, and was ordained a priest on 31 March 1877. He began teaching the Sacraments and legal subjects in Rome at the same Semi-
Elected titular archbishop of Caesarea in Palestine (1898), he was successively sent as apostolic delegate to Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In 1901 he was recalled to Rome to assume the office of Secretary of the S. Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs.
He is credited with the idea of codifying the CIC, which he expressed at his first audience with Pope Pius X. Although the name of Cardinal G. Gennari has recently been put forward in this regard as that of the first originator, the opinion stated above remains the one most firmly accredited historically, further corroborated by the confession of Cardinal G. himself, made a few days before his death in a public address on the occasion of the International Juridical Congress, held on the initiative of the Pontificio Institutum utriusque iuris (v. BIBLICA).
This great undertaking, begun on 13 Nov. 1904, occupied 14 years of the life of Cardinal G.—years, one might say, that were the most fruitful in the field of his published scientific work (v. CODEX IURIS CANONICI).
On 16 Dec. 1907 he was elevated to the cardinalate and then became, from secretary, relator of the Commission for Codification, which, as is known, completed the work on the new CIC, promulgated on 28 June 1917 and entering into force on 19 May 1918. To the CIC Cardinal G. added a preface, which briefly recounts the history of ecclesiastical legislation, an analytical index, and, in some editions, the notes on the sources, a work that he would expand by editing the CIC Fontes, whose first 6 vols. appeared from 1923 to 1932; the VII, already ready at the author’s death, appeared in 1935 under the care of Cardinal Giustino Seredi, who oversaw the publication of vols. VIII-IX, thus completing the collection, which nevertheless has no critical value, but is merely a compilation, and, like the preface to the index, has no character of authenticity.
At the conclusion of the codification, Cardinal P. G. was also appointed the first president of the Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the CIC canons, established by motu proprio of 17 Oct. 1917.
Meanwhile, with the election of Benedict XV, who had already been his colleague in the Secretariat of State, following the brief interlude of Cardinal Ferrata, which lasted 36 days, Cardinal G. was appointed Secretary of State. At the death of Benedict XV (v.), with whom he had shared the responsibilities of government and the inspiration of the greatest acts of that pontificate, which was especially fruitful in the resumption of diplomatic relations with many nations, in the subsequent conclave the strong personality of Cardinal G. concentrated a considerable number of votes, with which he subsequently supported the candidacy of Cardinal Ratti, who, having been elected pope, reconfirmed him as his Secretary of State until 10 Feb. 1930.
The greatest event after the codification in which Cardinal G. took part was the Conciliation, on which he had worked from the days of Versailles through Msgr. Cerretti, inspiring Pius XI’s gesture of pacification as he blessed the people from the external loggia on the day of his election, and promoting contacts as early as 6 Aug. 1926; after a substantial interruption over the question of education, these contacts were resumed in the form of negotiations on 3 Sept. 1928 and concluded on 11 Feb. 1929.
In the final phase, on 22 Nov. 1928, the Pope delegated Cardinal G. himself for the official negotiations and for the signing of the acts, which G. signed as plenipotentiary. A year later, owing to personal disagreements, he left his position as Secretary of State, in which he had earned a well-deserved reputation as a great diplomat, and spent his final years in retirement and study, surrounded by the veneration and admiration of the ecclesiastical world and of many lay circles, including some outside the Church. His Cathechismus Catholicus (Rome 1930) dates from these years.
Already invested with the collar of the S.ma Annunziata, on 20 Apr. 1933 he was appointed a member of the Accademia d'Italia for the juridical disciplines. His remains lie in his native Ussita.
It is premature today to pass a definitive judgment on his activity as theologian and canonist, diplomat and codifier, but it is certain that G. was one of the greatest figures in the ecclesiastical world during the first thirty years of the century. For knowledge of his inner life, his Diario, which is still unpublished, may prove to be of great value.