Carlo Salotti

Carlo Salotti (25 July 1870 – 24 October 1947) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation of Rites from 1938 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in pectore in 1933.

Born in Grotte di Castro, Carlo Salotti attended the seminary in Orvieto before going to Rome, where he studied at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare and the Royal University. He was ordained to the priesthood on 22 September 1894, and then finished his studies in 1897. While performing his pastoral ministry in Rome until 1912, Salotti became a professor at his alma mater of the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare in 1902. On 20 July 1915 he was raised to the rank of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness. He entered the Roman Curia on 10 July 1915 as assessor of the Congregation of Rites and subpromoter of the Faith, later becoming full Promoter of the Faith in 1925.

On 30 June 1930, Salotti was appointed Titular Archbishop of Philippopolis in Thracia by Pope Pius XI, and Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and rector of the Pontifical Urbaniana University four days later, on 3 July. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 6 July from Cardinal Willem van Rossum, CSSR, with Bishops Luigi Olivarès, SDB, and Giovanni Rosi serving as co-consecrators, in the basilica of Sacro Cuore di Gesù a Castro Pretorio. During his tenure as rector of the Urbaniana University, he founded the Scientific Missionary Institute of the same university. As Secretary of Propagation of the Faith, Salotti served as the second-highest official of that dicastery, successively under Cardinals van Rossum and Pietro Fumasoni Biondi.