PAROCCHI, LUCIDO MARIA. - Cardinal, b. at Mantua on 13 Aug. 1833, d. at Rome on 15 Jan. 1903. A priest in 1856, he was at Mantua a professor of moral theology, ecclesiastical history and canon law in the Seminary; in 1863 archpriest of the parish of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius.
In 1871 he founded the journal La Scuola cattolica, to which from its foundation contributed the patriarch Paolo Ballerini, Monsignors Federico Sala and Agostino Riboldi, and, later, Achille Ratti (the future Pius XI), Pietro Maffi, Dalmazio Minoretti, Giuseppe Toniolo. On 27 Oct. 1871 he was elected by Pius IX bishop of Pavia and then in the Consistory of 22 June 1877 created cardinal of the title of St. Sixtus, and archbishop of Bologna. In the new see, which at that moment was, one might say, in the vanguard of the Italian Catholic movement, P. had to encounter no small difficulties owing to the failure of the Italian Government to grant the exequatur. In 1882 Leo XIII called him to Rome and two years later wanted him as vicar general for the city of Rome and its district.
In that office he carried out effective work with the spoken and written word; he devoted every activity to the development of Catholic Action, making its various associations more flourishing and creating new ones.
He opted in 1889 for the suburbicarian see of Albano and in 1896 for that of Porto and St. Rufina. Appointed, in 1896, secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office; in 1899 he left the vicariate of Rome, for the office of vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. He was, moreover, president of the cardinalitial Commission « de eligendis Italiae episcopis » and, in the Holy Year 1900, legate a latere of Leo XIII for the closing of the Holy Door of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Of his publications, remarkable for elegance of style, depth of thought and polemical vigor, particular mention deserves to be made of: Protestantesimo e razionalismo (Mantua 1868), S. Tommaso d'Aquino scrittore (Pavia 1874), Omelie, panegirici e discorsi (Prato 1882).
Bibliography3 works
Mario de Camilla