RAMPOLLA DEL TINDARO, MARIANO. — Cardinal, born on 17 August 1843 at Polizzi (Cefalù, Sicily), died on 16 December 1913 at Rome. He entered the Vatican Seminary in 1856 and, in November 1861, transferred to the Capranica College; ordained a priest in 1866, he subsequently attended the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles. Having obtained a degree in utroque iure in 1870, he was assigned to the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, where, owing to his knowledge of Oriental languages, he demonstrated broad learning and aptitude for a diplomatic career.
In 1875 Pius IX sent him to Spain as counsellor of that nunciature, headed by Giovanni Simeoni. When the latter, following Antonelli’s death, was appointed cardinal secretary of State, R. remained at the nunciature as chargé d’affaires until 1877, during an exceptionally difficult period for the Catholic Church. Recalled to Rome, he became secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda for the Oriental rite. After the Armenian schism had been brought to an end, he was preconized in December 1882 as titular archbishop of Heraclea and returned to Madrid as nuncio, remaining there until 1887, when Leo XIII created him cardinal on 27 May and appointed him his secretary of State on 3 June. In the letter that the Pontiff addressed to him on that same day, Leo XIII drew R.’s attention to the problem of the freedom of the Holy See, a freedom regarded as inseparable from recognition of true sovereignty. Leo XIII’s measured words persuaded R., although convinced of the immense obstacles posed by certain Italian political circles and spheres, not to make an explicit « fin de non recevoir » to any possible governmental inquiries. In 1891, indeed, he showed himself favourable to contacts, initiated through Monsignor 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 herald a friendly settlement between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, but a sudden rallying of the Freemasons, provoked by a thoughtless act of provocation on the part of French pilgrims who had placed inscriptions acclaiming the Pope in the visitors’ registers of the Pantheon, unleashed an anticlerical wave throughout Italy, stifling at birth every attempt in this direction.
The political isolation of the Holy See vis-à-vis Italy, allied with Austria-Hungary and Germany, increased the dangers of the situation,
which led R., supported by the Pontiff, to normalize relations with republican France and, in particular, to bring Catholic forces into the nation’s political life, from which they had remained separated since 1870 because of their monarchical prejudice. This ralliement, dictated by the need to safeguard the Holy See against Italian anticlericalism and perhaps also intended to alter in its own favour Habsburg indifference toward the papacy, was instead interpreted by the Viennese governmental circles as a stance against the powers of the Triple Alliance. It was precisely the fear of a « French » pope that led Franz Joseph to have Cardinal Puzyna, bishop of Kraków, cast a veto against R.’s election to the pontificate at the Conclave of August 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, following the « separation » of 1905, once again made him one of the surest candidates for the tiara, as emerges 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 clearly 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 aim of safeguarding the rights of the Catholic magisterium in the world.
With a mind exceptionally open to following developments in the sacred sciences, he also contributed to them through personal critical studies; highly esteemed by scholars were the volume S. Melania Giuniore, Rome 1905 (from cod. Escorial., a. II. 9); Di un catalogo cimiteriale romano, in Atti II congresso intern. Archeol. crist., Rome 1902 (from cod. Escorial., S. 3,27).