Installed 13 June 1921 Nationality Italian Ordination September 18, 1886 Term ended 30 June 1928 Name Giovanni Porcelli Consecration May 5, 1895 | Successor Pedro Segura y Saenz Created cardinal June 13, 1921 | |
Birth name Giovanni Tacci Porcelli Died June 30, 1928, Rome, Italy | ||
Giovanni Tacci Porcelli (12 November 1863 – 30 June 1928) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Secretary of the Congregation for Oriental Churches from 1922 to 1927, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1921.
Biography
Tacci Porcelli was born in Mogliano to Professor Luigi Tacci and his wife Maria Monti Guarnieri. He received Confirmation on 22 December 1871, and studied at the seminary in Tolentino, the Pontifical Roman Seminary (from where he obtained his doctorates in theology and canon law), and the elite Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. Ordained to the priesthood on 19 September 1886, Tacci Porcelli then did pastoral work in Fermo and Rome until 1895, and was later raised to the rank of Domestic Chamberlain of His Holiness. He also served as Dean of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, a member of the Commission of Pontifical Schools, and an ecclesiasticus of several monasteries.
On 18 March 1895, he was appointed Bishop of Città della Pieve by Pope Leo XIII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 5 May from Cardinal Amilcare Malagola, with Bishops Luigi Bonetti and Roberto Papiri serving as co-consecrators. He was later named Apostolic Delegate to Constantinople and Patriarchal Vicar for Latin-rite Catholics on 19 December 1904. After becoming Titular Archbishop of Nicaea on 10 March 1905, he was also made Nuncio to Belgium (31 December 1907) and Internuncio to the Netherlands (18 March 1911). Archbishop Tacci Porcelli was appointed Prefect of the Pontifical Household on 30 October 1918.
Pope Benedict XV created him Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere in the consistory of 13 June 1921. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1922 papal conclave, which selected Pope Pius XI; erroneous reports from Rome claimed that Tacci himself had been elected by the Sacred College. He was named Secretary of the Congregation for Oriental Churches on 8 August 1922. In this position, He was essentially the prefect of that dicastery, for the Pope served as the nominal head until 1967. He resigned his post in January 1927.
The Cardinal died in Rome at age 64, and is buried in the Campo Verano cemetery.