RAMPOLLA DEL TINDARO, MARIANO. - Cardinal, b. 17 Aug. 1843 at Polizzi (Cefalù, Sicily), d. 16 Dec. 1913 at Rome. Having entered the Vatican Seminary in 1856, he passed in Nov. 1861 to the Capranica College; a priest in 1866, he then attended the Pontifical Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics. Having earned a doctorate in utroque iure in 1870, he was attached to the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, where through his knowledge of Oriental languages he gave proof of wide culture and of an aptitude for a diplomatic career.
In 1875 Pius IX sent him to Spain as counselor of that nunciature, directed by Giovanni Simeoni. When the latter was appointed, upon the death of Antonelli, Cardinal Secretary of State, R. remained in the nunciature as chargé d'affaires until 1877, in a period exceedingly difficult for the Catholic Church. Recalled to Rome, he was secretary at the Congregation of Propaganda for the Oriental rite. Once the Armenian schism was ended, he was preconized in Dec. 1882 titular archbishop of Heraclea and returned to Madrid as nuncio until 1887, when Leo XIII, on 27 May, created him cardinal and on 3 June appointed him his Secretary of State. In the letter that the Pontiff addressed to him that same day, R.'s attention was called to the problem of the freedom of the Holy See, a freedom considered inseparable from the recognition of a true sovereignty. The measured words of Leo XIII persuaded R., though convinced of the immense obstacles on the part of certain Italian circles and political spheres, not to oppose an explicit "fin de non recevoir" to possible governmental soundings. In 1891 he even showed himself favorable to contacts, initiated through Msgr. Della Chiesa and Count De Bojani, with the Cabinet of the Marquis Di Rudini in order to resolve various particular questions connected with episcopal appointments. These negotiations seemed to prelude a friendly settlement between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, but a sudden outcry on the part of Freemasonry, brought about by an ill-considered act of provocation by French pilgrims who had affixed to the visitors' registers of the Pantheon inscriptions acclaiming the Pope, raised throughout Italy an anticlerical wave that stifled at birth every attempt in that regard.
The dangers of the situation were aggravated by the political isolation of the Holy See in the face of Italy, allied with Austria-Hungary and with Germany, which moved R., supported by the Pontiff, to normalize relations with republican France and in particular to insert the Catholic forces into the political life of the nation, from which they had remained severed since 1870, because of their monarchist precondition. This ralliement, dictated by the necessity of safe-
(Int. Frilvi, RAMPOLLA DEL TINDARO, MARIANO. Portrait.
guarding the Holy See against Italian anticlericalism and tending perhaps also to modify in its own favor the Habsburg indifference toward the papacy, was interpreted instead by Viennese governmental circles as a taking of a position against the powers of the Triple Alliance. And it was precisely the fear of a "French" pope that determined Francis Joseph to have Cardinal Puzyna, bishop of Kraków, place the veto against the election to the pontificate of R. in the Conclave of Aug. 1903.
Under the pontificate of Pius X, R., no longer Secretary of State, carried out his work in the congregations of which he was a member. The crisis in Franco-Vatican relations, after the "separation" of 1905, made him once again one of the surest candidates for the tiara, as is evident from Austrian diplomatic documents of the period.
R.'s political and diplomatic activity as Secretary of State is inseparable from that of the Pontiff. It therefore remains difficult to define in clear lines the limits of his action. Faithful to the directives of Leo XIII, he sought to ensure the independence of the Holy See by means of a realistic insertion of the Vatican into the international community with the intent of safeguarding the rights of the Catholic magisterium in the world
A mind most open to following the developments of the sacred sciences, he also contributed to them with personal critical studies; highly esteemed by scholars are the volume S. Melania Giuniore, Rome 1905 (from the Escorial codex, a. II. 9); Di un catalogo cimiteriale romano, in Atti II congresso intern. Archeol. crist., Rome 1902 (from the Escorial codex, S. 3,27).
Bibliography7 works
Silvio Furlani