Mariano Rampolla

Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro (17 August 1843 – 16 December 1913) was an Italian Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and the last man to have his candidacy for papal election vetoed by a Catholic monarch.

Born in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, Rampolla was the son of Ignazio Rampolla, Count of Tindaro, and of his wife, Orsola Errante. He is often referred to with the title of marquess, but this appears to be inaccurate.

Rampolla entered the Vatican Seminary in 1856, and in 1861 continued his education at the Collegio Capranica and the Pontifical Gregorian University. Having displayed a considerable knowledge in Oriental affairs, he was sent to the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles as preparation for service in the Roman Curia.

In 1866 Rampolla was ordained a priest. He obtained a doctorate in utroque iure (Canon Law and Civil Law)in 1870. In 1874 he was named a Canon of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In 1875, he was sent to Spain as Auditor of the papal Nunciature. In 1877 he returned to Rome and was named Secretary for Oriental Affairs of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. In the following year he was named a Protonotary apostolic de numero participantium, the highest rank of Monsignors. In 1880 he was named Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the Vatican office which deals with areas of the world in which there is no regularly constituted hierarchy of bishops. Then Rampolla was also appointed Secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, the subsection of the Secretariat of State which deals with the foreign affairs of the Holy See.

On 1 December 1882 Rampolla was appointed titular archbishop of Heraclea in Europa, and on 8 December 1882 was consecrated bishop by Cardinal Edward Henry Howard in the Vatican Basilica. This was in preparation for his nomination as Apostolic Nuncio to Spain, which came on 19 December 1882.

In the Consistory of 14 March 1887, Pope Leo XIII created Rampolla del Tindaro a Cardinal-Priest, at the age of 43, and on 26 May formally assigned him the titulus of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. On 2 June he was appointed Secretary of State. In this office (as previously in Spain), Rampolla employed Giacomo della Chiesa, the future Benedict XV, as his secretary.

On 21 March 1894, Pope Leo XIII named Cardinal Rampolla to be Archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica. In this position, he was designated to canonically crown the venerated image of Santo Bambino of Aracoeli on 2 May 1897.

As Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla supported the Austrian Christian Social Party, led by Karl Lueger, sometime mayor of Vienna (1897-1910). Lueger only entered office, over the disapproval of Emperor Franz Joseph, through the personal intervention of Leo XIII. Leuger's Christian Social Party was the first Catholic social movement that was both anti-liberal and anti-Semitic. Rampolla began to swing papal policy away from support of Austria, come what may, toward support of France, Austria's enemy. His policy inside Italy, in the most general terms, was to oppose every Italian government that came to office, on the grounds that there was nothing to lose, and perhaps something to gain, especially on the international scene.

In 1908 he became Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Fabric of Saint Peter's.

1903 Conclave veto

Cardinal Rampolla at age 70 shortly before his death

When Leo XIII died in 1903, it was widely expected that Rampolla would be elected pope. His candidacy gained momentum until the last moment when the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I, sovereign of one of the three major European Catholic nations claiming such power (Austria, France and Spain), imposed the veto Jus exclusivae during the Conclave. Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko, Prince-Archbishop of Kraków, expressed the veto on behalf of the Austrian emperor. Cardinal Puzyna de Kosielsko was subsequently (1904) decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary.

The Secretary of the Conclave, Archbishop Rafael Merry del Val, reported later that Cardinal Puzyna de Kosielsko came to see him, demanding to announce his veto against Cardinal Rampolla in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Merry Del Val protested and refused even to accept the document. Rampolla, according to Merry del Val, actually gained votes after the veto. However, Merry del Val later opined to Ludwig von Pastor that Rampolla was unlikely to win as a majority of the cardinals wanted a more conservative direction from the relatively liberal pontificate of Pope Leo XIII, as did he himself.

The specific reasons for Austria's opposition have never been clarified. Possibly, the veto was a result of the pro-French positions adopted by Rampolla, which were reflected in the policies of Leo XIII. Part of the Holy See's solution involving the French Republic was the attempt to reconcile French Catholics with their nation's republican government via Laïcité. This was anathema to the powerful Ultramontanes. Informed sources at the time also claimed that Austria acted on behalf of Italy's government through the intervention of State Minister Zanardelli. Count Carl Lonyay, in his book Rudolf : the tragedy of Mayerling, gives an explanation based on the murder/suicide of Franz Joseph's son, Crown Prince Rudolf in 1889. Rampolla was the Papal Secretary of State at the time of the Mayerling events, and he personally refused the dispensation which would allow Rudolf's burial in sacred ground, for which he incurred the undying enmity of the Emperor, who exacted his revenge fifteen years later by vetoing the Cardinal's election as Pope. The official reason for Rudolf's death, however, was "mental imbalance", which allowed for a Catholic burial.

While some prelates formally protested this intrusion after voting had been in progress, the Ultra Cardinals readily recognized the existing legal right of the emperor. Support for Rampolla dissipated, leading to the election of Giuseppe Sarto as Pope Pius X. Abolition of the veto right was one of the new Pope's first official acts.

Pius X

Pius X chose the able secretary of the conclave that had elected him, Rafael Merry del Val, to succeed Rampolla as Secretary of State. However, Rampolla remained Arch-Priest of Saint Peter's, a position to which he had been appointed by Leo XIII. He lived in a modest house behind Saint Peter's Basilica. Between 1908 and his death in 1913, Rampolla served as Secretary (then the head) of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. In 1912, Pope Pius X appointed Rampolla, in addition to his role as head of the Holy Office, as Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, a position he held until his death.

Symbolising successful papal diplomacy and worldwide contacts, he continued to be viewed as a most likely successor to Pope Pius X in case of the pontiff's death. Rampolla died suddenly in Rome on 16 December 1913 at age seventy, some months before the pope died in August 1914. He was buried in the Campo Verano Cemetery, near the Basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura. His friend and closest collaborator, Giacomo della Chiesa, the future Pope Benedict XV, presided over his funeral ceremonies. On 19 June 1929, twelve days after the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty, the body of Cardinal Rampolla was transferred to Santa Cecilia.