Card. Laghi – RIP

Pio Cardinal Laghi, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Catholic Education (for Seminaries and Institutes of Study), has died.

He was 86 years old and had served as a priest for 62 years. He served as a bishop for 39 years and as a cardinal for 17 years.

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13 Comments

  1. Requiescat in pace. He was a good son of Mother Church and a holy priest.

  2. He wrote an excellent few pages at the end of Chiesa e Sacra Scrittura, Un secolo di magistero ecclesiastico e studi biblici, Subsidia Biblica 17, entitled, “I riflessi del progresso biblico, particularmente della Constituzione dogmatica Dei Verbum, per la teologia. If anybody’s got that handy, you might want to give it a read and say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

  3. puella says:

    Oh wow. I’ve never heard of him, but just his numbers point to such a long time of service, sacrifice and love. I pray he gets to Heaven!

  4. miss book says:

    Requiescat in pace.
    May the Angels lead him into Paradise.

  5. Truman says:

    Unless I am badly mistaken, he was also the papal nuncio here in the States for most of the eighties.

  6. Tim Ferguson says:

    Laghi was indeed the the last Apostolic Delegate to the United States and became the first Nuncio, when diplomatic relations were established in 1984. He was made delegate right after Archbishop Jean Jadot (who, unlike most other papal representatives to the US was not named a Cardinal after leaving office). After Jadot, there were some pretty major problems to deal with. Laghi did a decent job(not perfect – and I’m sure other commenters will break the dictum “de mortuis nihil nisi bonum” and wax eloquent about the flaws of Laghi and his time here), and left the US with a better college of bishops than he found when he came.

    As with many in the papal diplomatic corps and in the dicasteries of the Holy See, many of the things he did were behind the scenes and will remain clouded to history despite their profundity.

    He certainly touched my life in a positive way in a couple regards. I will certainly keep him in my prayers.

  7. Father Bartoloma says:

    I\’m not sure if many people realize this but Archbishop Jean Jadot is still alive and will be 100 next month if he makes it.

  8. Tim Ferguson says:

    Archbishop Jadot is currently the fourth oldest bishop living (unless Bishop Francis Yong-Ho of P’yong-Yang, North Korea, who went “missing” in the 50s is still alive at the age of 102, in which case, Jadot would be the fifth oldest)

  9. RBrown says:

    Abp Laghi was a key figure in the 1982 actions ending the Bernardin US bishop factory. Cardinal Bernardin was pushing Abp Kelly of Louisville for New York. Abp Laghi wanted O’Connor–and JPII agreed. Cardinal O’Connor’s influence then grew as Cardinal Bernardin’s faded.

  10. RBrown says:

    Should be 1984 not 1982.

  11. Tom says:

    When Bishop McCarrick was installed as the first bishop of Metuchen, NJ, my little brother got whacked in the head by Cardinal Laghi because he and some of the other boys were fooling around in the sacristy. I always told my brother that Bishop Laghi must have known what he was doing because he figured out who the instigator was…

    RIP, Cardinal Laghi.

  12. Matthew Hysell says:

    H. Em. +Pio Cardinal LAGHI was a good friend of H. Em. +John Cardinal O’CONNOR, both of whom paved the way for the ordination of Deaf men to the presbyterate. Their work continues today in the ministry of the Dominican Missionaries for the Deaf Apostolate.

    Thank you, Cardinal Laghi, for your work.

  13. Bob Glassmeyer says:

    Oh, no!

    Of course, Memory Eternal! + I’m just sad, because when I was a student at the Josephinum, he was Apostolic Delegate to the US at the time, our seminary was celebrating 100 years, and I got to meet him. What a kind, sweet man!

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