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Pietro Palazzini

His Eminence
Pietro Palazzini
Cardinal-Priest of San Girolamo della Carità
Installed 12 December 1974
Term ended 11 October 2000
Predecessor Paolo Bertoli
Successor Jorge María Mejía
Orders
Ordination 6 December 1934
Consecration 21 September 1962
Created Cardinal 5 March 1973
by Pope Paul VI
Personal details
Birth name Pietro Palazzini
Born (1912-05-19)May 19, 1912
Piobbico, near Pesaro, Kingdom of Italy
Died October 11, 2000(2000-10-11) (aged 88)
Previous post
  • Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (1980–1988)
  • Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (1962–1973)
  • Cardinal-Deacon of San Pier Damiani ai Monti di San Paolo (1973–1974)

Pietro Palazzini (May 19, 1912 – October 11, 2000) was an Italian Cardinal who helped to save the lives of Jewish people in World War II. He was consecrated bishop by the pope in 1962 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1973. He has been commemorated by Yad Vashem.

Born in Piobbico, near Pesaro, on May 19, 1912, of a humble family, Palazzini studied at the Pontifical Regional Seminary in the coastal town of Fano. In 1932, he took a degree in Law at the Lateran University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1934 and returned to the Lateran University to continue his studies in Theology. Palazzini began his career teaching moral theology and canon law in Rome.

After various teaching assignments, Palazzini he was assistant vice-rector of the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary, located on the grounds of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Although Palazzini was under surveillance by Italian Fascists who suspected him of harboring Jews, he, together with Father Vincenzo Fagiolo hid Jews at the Lateran.

In 1985, Palazzini was honored by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations", where he protested the repeated criticisms against Pope Pius XII, on whose instructions Palazzini declared himself to have acted. Palazzini, a theological advisor to the Pontiff, had taught and written about the moral theology of Pope Pius XII.

In a 1992 interview, he referred to a walk he took with Pius XII in the Vatican Gardens before the imminent Nazi occupation of Rome, during which, it was rumoured, the Pope could be abducted. Behind the bushes, on the walkways, everywhere marching exercises by the soldiers of the Papal Noble Guard. When the Pope asked the meaning of all this, he was told that these are exercises in preparation for his defense, in case of a German take-over of the Vatican. However, on the day of the German occupation of the Eternal City, the Papal Noble Guard had disappeared. Only the Swiss guard stood watch at the Vatican. Pope Pius XII, Palazzini stated, would not have left the Vatican as Pope in case of a Nazi abduction. He would have resigned and left as a simple priest.


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