Pacelli, Francesco

PACELLI, FRANCESCO. - Jurist, b. in Rome on 27 Feb. 1874, to Filippo and Virginia Graziosi, d. in Rome on 22 Apr. 1935. Having graduated in civil and canon law, he devoted himself to the study of the law of public waters; in 1898 he published the treatise Le acque pubbliche, which became a fundamental work on the subject, enlarged and updated in the subsequent editions of 1918 and 1934. His publications earned him in 1922 the libera docenza in "Law of waters" at the University of Rome. At the same time P. carried on an intense professional activity: he was at the legal office of the Municipality of Rome (to him is owed the preservation for the city of the Greek statue of the Niobid), a lawyer of the Sacred Consistory, legal consultant to the Holy See and to many sacred congregations of the Roman Curia.

Study and the profession prepared P. for his greatest work: the negotiations for the Conciliation. From their beginning (6 Aug. 1926) until the ratification of the Lateran Pacts (7 June 1929) he conducted them under the guidance and according to the directives of Pope Pius XI (v.), at times bringing a decisive personal contribution and demonstrating the qualities of a jurist and the tact of a negotiator. The first conversations with the representative of the Italian government, Domenico Barone, immediately addressed the Roman Question, and it was to P.'s credit to find preliminary formulas and to prepare notes and memoranda that served as the basis for the subsequent texts. The most delicate point was that of the sovereignty of the new State, Mussolini proposing a superimposition of the sovereignty of a "free papal City or of the Pope", to agree finally on the name "Vatican City". The negotiations for the Treaty and the Concordat then continued during 1927 and 1928, with frequent interruptions because of violence against Catholic youth Associations and against priests, and above all because of the Decree-law of 9 Jan. 1927, amended by another decree of 9 Apr. 1928, on the Opera naz. Balilla. Finally the decision taken by Pius XI at the end of Oct. 1928 to renounce villa Pamphili, limiting the territory to the Vatican, caused every reservation to fall and opened the way to the last phase of the negotiations (from 9 Nov. 1928 to 10 Feb. 1929). In Dec. little was done, because of Barone's illness (d. 4 Jan. 1929); the work of the last month was most intense, in which P. was the sole mediator between the one party and the other. The financial question, which had been long discussed during the negotiations, was settled, and the difficulties concerning marriage and the administration of ecclesiastical property were overcome. On 31 Jan. 1929 agreement was reached on the various points under discussion; the negotiations of the last days determined that the railway station should be built within the interior of Vatican City and that the Palace of the Holy Office should not be included in the territory of the new State.

After the signing of the Lateran Pacts (11 Feb. 1929) P. was charged by the Pope with preparing the fundamental laws of the State of Vatican City and took part in the drafting of the Italian laws for the application of the Pacts. The strong tension provoked by Mussolini's speeches to the Chambers (13 and 25 May), to which Pius XI responded with the letter to card. Gasparri (5 June), was overcome with the declaration read at the moment of the ratifications in the Vatican (7 June 1929), which had been formulated the day before by P. Even afterwards, until his death, he continued to work for the implementation of the Pacts. In order to continue to carry on his activity in Italy on behalf of the Holy See, he did not wish to hold government offices in the State of Vatican City; he accepted only that of Councillor general.

Michele Maccarrone