Gaetano Alibrandi
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Styles of Gaetano Alibrandi |
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| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Monsignor |
| Posthumous style | not applicable |
Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi (14 January 1914 – 3 July 2003) of the Roman Catholic Church was a senior papal diplomat and former Personal Secretary to Giovanni Battista Cardinal Montini (later Pope Paul VI).[1]
Born at Castiglione di Sicilia in the Province of Catania, Sicily, Alibrandi was ordained priest on 1 November 1936, and obtained a Doctorate on Divinity from the Pontifical Lateran University and a Doctorate on Civil and Canon Law. He entered the Diplomatic Corps of the Holy See on 1941 serving for five years in the Vatican Secretariat of State and later, as Apostolic Internuncio to Indonesia (1958),
In 1961 he received episcopal consecration as titular Archbishop of Binda by Fernando Cardinal Cento upon his appointment as Nuncio of Chile (1961), followed quickly by similar appointments in Lebanon (1963), and Ireland (1969) where he retired in 1989. As Apostolic Nuncio to Chile he led the Chilean delegation to the Second Vatican Council.
He was appointed Papal Nuncio to Ireland in 1969, shortly after the outbreak of the Troubles. This was a challenging time for the Church in Ireland then led by Cardinal William Conway as it adjusted to both the internal changes generated by the Second Vatican Council and the wider social changes. Alibrandi was ill-suited to coping with these changes and in particular the violence in Northern Ireland. It is widely assumed that he saw to it that the more overtly nationalist Tomas O'Fiaich was appointed to Armagh in 1977 after the death of Cardinal Conway. The journalist and author Ed Moloney in his book on the IRA asserts that Alibrandi's "sympathy for the IRA wa a constant source of friction with the government in London."[2]
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