Giuseppe Cardinal Siri

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Giuseppe Cardinal Siri (20 May 1906 - 2 May 1989) was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in the parish of S. Maria Immacolata in Genoa, Italy, his parents were Nicolò and Giulia (née Bellavista) Siri. Siri entered the Minor Seminary of Genoa on 16 October 1917, Genoa's Major Seminary in 1917, and the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome) in 1926. He was ordained into the priesthood by Carlo Cardinal Minoretti on 22 September 1928. Siri furthered his studies and pastoral work at Rome from 1928 to Autumn 1929.

Elected titular bishop of Liviade and appointed auxiliary of Genoa on 14 March 1944, he was consecrated in May of the same year by Pietro Cardinal Boetto, S.J. at the cathedral of S. Lorenzo; in 1946, he was promoted to the metropolitan see of Genoa. He was raised, in 1953, to the cardinalate by Pope Pius XII. As Archbishop of Genoa, he was one of the more conservative Catholic prelates of the Second Vatican Council. Image:Cardinalsiri.JPG

It has been claimed that Siri received the majority vote in the Papal Conclave twice; in 1958 and 1963 (even announcing in the Papal Conclave that he wished to be known as Pope Gregory XVII) but that on both occasions when faced with threats that Catholics in the Eastern Bloc would face persecution on account of his fiercely anti-Soviet Union opinions in the event of his assuming the papacy, he declined the Papal Tiara, a not unknown occurrence. Given that the conduct of papal conclaves is strictly confidential and that any cardinal revealing the details would face instant excommunication, no documentary evidence has ever substantiated or disproved the widely claimed rumour. Cardinal Siri himself denied these rumours repeatedly.

Siri was a leading candidate for the papacy (Papabile) in both the August and October 1978 conclaves that followed the deaths of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul I respectively. Media reports suggested that Siri in fact topped the first count of votes in the August conclave but ultimately was beaten by Albino Cardinal Luciani, who became Pope John Paul I. Following John Paul I's death, Siri was the leading conservative candidate in opposition to Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, the leading liberal candidate. Vaticanologists suggested that the eventual winner, Karol Cardinal Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II, was chosen as a compromise candidate between the two.

Though claimed as Pope by one sedevacantist group that believes the widespread rumours that he had actually been elected to the papacy in 1958 and 1963, only to be displaced by Angelo Cardinal Roncalli (Pope John XXIII) and Giovanni Cardinal Montini (Pope Paul VI) respectively, Siri remained in full communion with the Catholic Church and refused to support any sedevacantist Catholic organization. One small sedevacantist group, centered in Houston, Texas still claims him to have been the actual pope, despite Cardinal Siri's own silence as to this claim. This small group, supporters of "The Siri Thesis" [1] have yet to offer any reasonable explanation for the fact that Siri failed to support the "Traditional Roman Catholic movement", the fact that, until his death, Cardinal Siri recognized John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II as legitimate popes, the fact that Cardinal Siri said the new Mass, ordained in the new rite, consecrated in the new rite, signed all of the documents of Vatican II, held high official positions in the Church and defended Vatican II.

He died on 2 May 1989 in the Villa Campostano, Albaro, and is buried at S. Lorenzo metropolitan cathedral in Genoa.

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