PAROCCHI, LUCIDO MARIA. — Cardinal, born in Mantua on 13 August 1833, died in Rome on 15 January 1903. Ordained a priest in 1856, he was professor of moral theology, Church history, and canon law at the Seminary in Mantua; in 1863 he became archpriest of the parish of SS. Gervasio e Protasio.
In 1871 he founded the journal La Scuola cattolica, to which, from its foundation, the patriarch Paolo Ballerini, the mons. Federico Sala and Agostino Riboldi, and, later, Achille Ratti (the future Pius XI), Pietro Maffi, Dalmazio Minoretti, and Giuseppe Toniolo contributed. On 27 October 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 S. Sisto and archbishop of Bologna. In the new see, which at that moment was, one might say, at the forefront of the Italian Catholic movement, P. encountered no few difficulties because of the Italian Government’s refusal to grant the exequatur. In 1882 Leo XIII summoned him to Rome, and two years later appointed him his vicar general for the city of Rome and its district.
In this office he carried out effective work through his speeches and writings; he devoted all his activity to the development of Catholic Action, strengthening its various associations and creating new ones.
In 1889 he opted for the suburbicarian see of Albano, and in 1896 for that of Porto e S. Rufina. Appointed secretary of the S. Congregation of the S. Ufficio in 1896, in 1899 he relinquished the vicariate of Rome in order to become vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. He was also president of the Cardinalitial Commission « de eligendis Italiae episcopis » and, in the Holy Year of 1900, Leo XIII’s legatus a latere for the closing of the Holy Door of S. Paolo fuori le mura. Among his publications, noteworthy for elegance of style, depth of thought, and polemical vigor, particular mention should be made of: Protestantesimo e razionalismo (Mantua 1868), S. Tommaso d'Aquino scrittore (Pavia 1874), Omelie, panegirici e discorsi (Prato 1882).