֎Red Hat Fest '24: I Angelo ACERBI

The Popeular History Podcast

IMAGE
James Bradley, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
LINKS
Angelo ACERBI on Catholic-Hierarchy.org

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bacerbi.html

Angelo ACERBI on Gcatholic.org

https://gcatholic.org/p/6760

2024 Aleteia profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI

https://aleteia.org/2024/10/09/oldest-cardinal-ever-named-will-support-pope-with-prayer

2024 Vatican News profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-10/cardinal-elect-acerbi-appointment-diplomats.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1FkcEQXPlQQ0GisXPW3tDuVtGdsweDpgAMqxjBpHFijrWKH1SVwoJAxJI_aem_aNoXJ7ogQxgNqyZKZWwfGA
CathNews New Zealand's profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI:
https://cathnews.co.nz/2024/10/07/former-nz-nuncio-angelo-acerbi-appointed-a-cardinal/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come. As part of our march to the Kingdom Come part, the years keep rolling on and the Holy Father keeps adding new Cardinals to… well I’d normally say to fill vacancies, but the reality this is the first time possibly in history where technically the College is already over capacity but here comes Pope Francis adding more new Cardinals anyways. Don’t get too worked up about that, it’s not a sudden departure as JPII and Benedict both went over the same theoretical limit. The Papacy is an absolute monarchy so constitutions are more like guidelines, though I’m still very curious what it will look like if there’s ever a need for a conclave when the College is over capacity, something that seems all the more likely as Pope Francis continues to treat the maximum as a minimum and keeps hid apparent preference for having a consistory every year– the only full year he’s skipped in his pontificate was 2021 due to COVID.

But enough about the generalities, we’ve got 21 new Cardinals to cover and only a couple months to do so! To be clear, for the sake of my sanity as I continue to juggle my various responsibilities, I’ve decided I’m *not* planning to cover all the new Cardinals in time for the consistory on December 8th, at least not on the main feed. I *do* have it down as a stretch goal for my Patreon supporters, getting them all the new cardinals in a more timely fashion but everyone will get the same content eventually. It’s just going to take 21 weeks to cover the 21 new Cardinals on the main feed, and it’ll be faster for my Patreon folks as a thank-you for the support without actually putting content behind a paywall- just a mild time delay. Fair enough? Look, if you’re in a pinch and can’t afford a Patreon subscription just write in and ask, I’m a softie and I’ve been there before, no sweat, I’ll get you a link to whichever episode you like when it’s ready, free. Again, you’d be getting it eventually anyway, so really you don’t even need to do that, just have some patience.

Alright, enough admin, let’s get talking about the first Cardinal-Elect on Pope Francis’ list, and let’s start at the beginning, nearly a hundred years ago.

Angelo Acerbi was born on September 23rd 1925 in Sesta Godano, part of the province of La Spezia in the Liguria region of Italy, basically due north–ok and a smidge east–of Corsica. Historically, the area was for many years part of the Republic of Genoa, but, look, Cardinal-Elect Acerbi is old but he’s not *that* old. He is old enough though that he grew up under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist dictatorship and may just remember some adult’s reaction to the Lateran Treaty, but probably not, he was three at the time and that’s a lot of geopolitical awareness to ask of a toddler. Then again, this is a future diplomat we’re talking about here.

In any event, the most likely answer for what Angelo was doing as he came of age in Mussolini’s Italy is “going to school”, in particular going to seminary, as he was ordained by the age of 22, becoming a priest for the Diocese of… well, somewhere. He seems to have been near the border of two dioceses, La Spezia and Pontremoli. Vatican News lists Pontremoli, so we’ll go with that, you’d think they’d know. Part of what makes it not as clear as you’d think is he wasn’t serving in the diocese for long. In 1956, about 8 years after his ordination, Fr Acerbi entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See, which was expanding outward now that it was no longer dominated by Italian politics, at least not quite so much. Of course, to be clear, part of that domination had been voluntary, part of what made Mussolini successful was his partners in the Church.

Probably the biggest question of the 20th century Papacy is the extent to which Pius XII was one of those partners, and we’ll certainly be looking at that eventually, but for today’s purposes Acerbi’s overlap with the Pope of the Second World War is a brief couple years before Pius was succeeded by John XXIII of Second Vatican Council fame. I don’t have any stories of Father Acerbi and the Council, certainly he was aware of it, but he doesn’t seem to have been there, which makes sense as he wasn’t a bishop yet and his diplomatic work would have been ongoing throughout. His early diplomatic portfolio included relations with Colombia, Brazil, France, Japan, and Portugal. It’s possible his work in Colombia and Portugal overlapped with Papal trips there- Paul VI had kicked off the modern era of Papal travel in 1964 when he visited the Holy Land, the first Papal trip outside Italy since the time of Napoleon. Certainly Father Acerbi and Paul VI at least got together in 1974, when His Holiness appointed Father Acerbi as Pro-Nuncio to New Zealand and personally consecrated him Titular Archbishop of Zella, which as near as I can tell is an oasis in the middle of Libya. As a reminder, titular dioceses have no function, it’s just a way of giving an official jurisdiction to a bishop whose responsibilities won’t actually include running a diocese. Oh, and if you’re wondering, a Pro-Nuncio is actually one step *below* a regular Nuncio. It’s a step above an Apostolic Delegate, which, well, he also became one of those at the same time. Not to New Zealand, but to the Pacific Ocean. Realistically of course, “the Pacific Ocean” is referring to a number of Pacific Island nations, many of which have their own nunciatures these days, though I still like to think of it as managing the Holy See’s relations with Poseidon, God of the Sea.

The fifth Pope now-Archbishop Acerbi served was Pope Saint John Paul II, careful counters might wonder who the fourth Pope was but of course since they’re careful counters they’re probably already aware of the implied existence of John Paul the Second’s immediate predecessor, John Paul I. But JPI didn’t get up to much in his 33 days as Supreme Pontiff,

Which is why we’ve already blown past him so I can tell you that JPII made Archbishop Acerbi his Nuncio to Colombia in 1979, full-on Nuncio this time, and with him revisiting an area he had worked previously, keeping in mind Columbia was a possible overlap between Acerbi and Paul VI given Paul VI’s trip and Acerbi’s early work there.

Acerbi’s decade-plus as Nuncio to Colombia overlaps with some serious drug and cartel times we’ll look at more if he makes it to the next round. A particularly memorable stretch would have been the six weeks he spent as a hostage to Socialist guerrillas from that country’s 19th of April movement.

In 1990, Aberbi was made Nuncio to Hungary, making him first on the restored diplomatic scene there after the fall of the Iron Curtain–Hungary hadn’t had a nuncio since 1945. He continued on i

n that role for seven years, simultaneously serving as Nuncio to Moldova starting in 1994, the same year Moldova adopted their current constitution.

From 97 to 2001, Archbishop Acerbi served in his presumably final diplomatic post, as the Nuncio to the Netherlands. I say presumably because, of course, Pope Francis is giving him a new role in a couple months, so who knows? Maybe he will be asked to step back into another nunciature. Then again, Cardinal-Elect Acerbi himself has already thrown cold water on that idea, noting that he expects to support Pope Francis, quote, “with prayer, as I do not see how else I can contribute given my old age”. Which, I mean, fair enough, he’s 99.

But we’re not quite done with our overview, because from 2001 to 2015, Archbishop Acerbi served as the Prelate of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, a name which of course needs some unpacking– the Knights of Malta for short, they’re a military religious order that originally was meant to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land and wound up running Rhodes and Malta after the crusades, Rhodes until the Turks kicked them out and Malta until Napoleon kicked them out, at which point they moved to Rome. They’re more about ceremony and charitable stuff than military stuff these days, and we actually came across them during our Patreon special on Cardinal Burke with Fry from Pontifacts if you need another reason to join Patreon. Don’t worry, Cardinal Burke and the Knights of Malta will be popping up on the main feed again in due course. Anyways, as Prelate for the Order, the octogenarian Archbishop Acerbi’s job was to oversee the priests of the Order, making sure they were doing their priest things right. The end of his tenure overlapped with the beginning of the aforementioned Cardinal Burke’s time as their Cardinal-Patron by the way, if you were wondering about that.

Archbishop Acerbi retired from that role a few months before his 90th birthday, and hadn’t been making many headlines since, most recently residing at the Casa Santa Marta on the Vatican grounds, which if that name rings a bell, yes, Pope Francis lives in Room 201 there. And it was Pope Francis who put Archbishop Acerbi back into the headlines last week, when he dropped his name at his weekly Angelus last Sunday, which apparently the Acerbi was listening to, since he said that’s how he found out about it. His reaction to the news has been as diplomatic as you might expect, refusing to make it about himself personally, quote:

"I believe the Pope wanted to give a sign of appreciation and recognition for the service that many old and new nuncios, as well as the staff of the nunciatures, are providing around the world"

As he is already over the maximum voting age of 80, Cardinal-Elect Angelo Acerbi will not be able to vote in future conclaves, though traditionally older Cardinals do participate in the preliminary gatherings and discussions that take place during the sede vacante period before the opening of the conclave itself.

Today’s episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!