Giuseppe Pizzardo - Definition and Overview

Giuseppe Cardinal Pizzardo (July 13, 1877-August 1, 1970) was named a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in the consistory of 1937.

Born in Savona, Italy, he was ordained a priest in 1903 and entered the Roman Curia in 1909. In 1930 he was consecrated a bishop by Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII.

In the Curia Cardinal Pizzardo was Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education (then known as the Sacred Congregation for Seminaries and Universities) from 1939 to 1968. He was also the Secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) from 1951 to 1959. Cardinal bishop of the Suburbicarian diocese of Albano from 1948, he attended the Second Vatican Council.

He was known as an early patron and mentor of Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, who is said to have voted for Pizzardo at the conclave of 1963. Though they became more distant as Montini rose in power, Pope Paul's final trip away from his summer residence before his death in August 1978 was to a memorial mass on the anniversary of Cardinal Pizzardo's death.