Statesman Retires

Old in the service of the Church, learned in its laws, astute in its temporal business of diplomacy, is his eminence Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, 77, for 15 years papal Secretary of State. Last week, as often before, he submitted his resignation to his master and onetime protege, Pope Pius XI. Thought he: I have finished my last and greatest work, the concordat between the Papacy and the Italian State; I will spend my remaining years in the villa the Pope has given me overlooking the Coliseum; there I will codify the canon law of the Oriental churches. This time Pius XI accepted the resignation.

Scion of well-to-do sheep-owners in the Umbrian hills, Pietro Gasparri (not to be confused with his nephew, Enrico Cardinal Gasparri) studied for the priesthood at Nepi, then at the Pontifical Seminary in Rome. There he attracted the favorable attention of potent Cardinal Mertel, Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, became his secretary. Soon he was professor of Canon Law at the famed Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (TIME, Nov. 18). In 1898 he was elected archbishop, went to Lima as apostolic delegate for Peru, Bolivia & Ecuador. In 1901 he was called to be secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs; was elevated to the cardinalate in 1907; was the only papal Secretary of State to serve under two popes: Benedict XV, Pius XI.

Learned indeed is Cardinal Gasparri. Greatest living authority on canon law, in 13 years he codified its chaos. Once he might have been Pope. When Benedict XV died (1922), it was said that Gasparri received 28 votes on the first ballot, withdrew in favor of Achille Cardinal Ratti who had become through Gasparri's influence first papal librarian, then cardinal. Climax of the Gasparrian career was the Lateran Treaty with the Italian State, restoring in part the temporal sovereignty and possessions of the Pope, ending the 59-year-long papal "imprisonment." His resignation will probably not take effect before the first anniversary of the treaty's signing, in February.

Brusque, blunt, subtle in spite of his manner is Pietro Gasparri. Swarthy, stout of frame, broad of shoulder, his head is Ciceronian. His apartment in the Vatican, directly beneath the Pope's and connected with it by a private elevator, is of two rooms. His retinue includes a butler, a cook, a valet, a green parrot. In the little cemetery at Ussita, his home village, where the peasants call him "Don Pietro," his tomb is ready, inscription and all.

Said Vatican rumor: The new papal Secretary of State would be the newly elevated Eugene Cardinal Pacelli, formerly Papal Nuncio to Germany (TIME, Dec. 30).

P:Saddened was the Pope last week by the death of Giuseppe Cardinal Gamba, 72, Archbishop of Turin, great and good friend of Crown Prince Umberto of Italy. By Cardinal Gamba's death the vacancies in the Sacred College were increased to eight.

P:Reminiscent was the Pope in his second encyclical letter within a week. Reviewing the spiritual achievements of the year, he mentioned: concordats with Portugal, Rumania, Prussia; abatement of the persecution of priests in Mexico; new religious institutions in Rome: Lombard College, Russian College, Czechoslovakian College, Ethiopian Seminary; the settlement of the Roman question. Said he: "This happy termination opened a new era, in which Catholic Italy and the whole world rejoiced. Old prejudices have been forgotten by many in the peace with the Holy See." Added the Pope: His Golden Jubilee, technically ending Jan. 1, 1930, would be extended to June 30, 1930.

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