Giuseppe Siri

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File:Giuseppe Siri in 1930.jpg

Siri was born in Genoa to Nicolò and Giulia (née Bellavista) Siri. He entered the minor seminary of Genoa on 16 October 1916, and attended the major seminary from 1917 to 1926. Siri then studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Carlo Minoretti on 22 September 1928. Finishing his studies at the Gregorian, he earned his doctorate in theology summa cum laude and also did pastoral work in Rome until autumn 1929.

Upon returning to Genoa, Siri served as a chaplain until he became a professor of dogmatic theology at the major seminary in 1930, also teaching fundamental theology for a year. In addition to his academic duties, Siri was a preacher, public speaker, and professor of religion at the classical lyceums named to Andrea Doria and Giuseppe Mazzini from 1931 to 1936. He was named prosynodal examiner in the archdiocesan curia in 1936 and rector of Collegio Teologico S. Tommaso d'Aquino in 1937.

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File:Pio XII impone la berretta cardinalizia a Giuseppe Siri.jpg upon Siri in 1953.]]

File:Giuseppe Siri, 1960.jpg

On 14 March 1944, Siri was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Genoa and Titular Bishop of Livias by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 7 May from Cardinal Pietro Boetto at the St. Lawrence Cathedral. He became vicar general for the archdiocese on 8 September 1944. During his tenure as an auxiliary, he was a member of the Italian resistance movement in World War II. He negotiated with the Nazi forces surrounding Genoa and met secretly with partisan leaders, eventually arranging a Nazi surrender that avoided further bombardment of the city.

Following the death of Cardinal Boetto, Siri was named Archbishop of Genoa on 14 May 1946, and installed on 29 May of that year. Pius XII made him Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, in the consistory of 12 January 1953. At the time of his elevation, he was the youngest member of the College of Cardinals. He became known as the "minestrone cardinal" for his relief work in soup kitchens.

File:Giuseppe Siri vaticanum II.jpg

Pope John XXIII named Siri the first president of the Italian Episcopal Conference on 12 October 1959. He remained in that post until 1965. He was noted for his staunchly conservative views. At the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), he sat on its Board of Presidency but was anxious that the council's progress in renewing the Catholic Church could be happening too quickly.O'Riordan, S, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27658829.pdf The Third Session], The Furrow, Volume 15, No. 10 (October 1964), p. 621, accessed on 6 October 2024 Alongside Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Thomas Cooray, he was part of the association of traditionalist Council fathers named Coetus Internationalis Patrum but Siri commented, "I would describe myself as an independent, a man who walks alone and is not a member of any group." He was opposed to collegiality, as well as innovation.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895979-3,00.html|title=The Princes of the Church|magazine=Time|date=30 March 1962|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021100617/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,895979-3,00.html|archive-date=2008-10-21}}

Siri, who had voted in the papal conclaves of 1958 and 1963, was also one of the cardinal electors in the August and October 1978 conclaves. He was a strong candidate for the papacy, or papabile, in all four conclaves, in which his support lay mostly with curialists and other conservative cardinals. Media reports suggested that Siri in fact topped the first count of votes in the August 1978 conclave before losing to Albino Luciani, who became Pope John Paul I.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946069-2,00.html|title=How Pope John Paul I Won|magazine=Time|date=11 September 1978|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417054536/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946069-2,00.html|archive-date=2008-04-17}} Following John Paul I's death, Siri was the leading conservative candidate in opposition to Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, the Archbishop of Florence and leading liberal candidate. Vaticanologists suggested that the eventual winner, Cardinal Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II, was chosen as a compromise candidate between the two. Shortly afterwards, Siri implied that he disapproved of Wojtyła's election.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912229-2,00.html|title=A 'Foreign' Pope|magazine=Time|date=30 October 1978|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930071939/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912229-2,00.html|archive-date=2007-09-30}}

In a biography of Siri, {{ill|Nicla Buonasorte|qid=Q109649832|s=1|v=sup}} reports that Siri was a friend of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre but disapproved of his reported schismatic activities. Even until the last minute, Siri begged him ("on his knees") not to break with the Holy See. In the end, Siri resigned himself to the inevitability of his friend's excommunication. Buonasorte commented: "In all probability, it is due to Siri that Lefebvre had no significant following in Italy."{{cite news|last=Carioti|first=Antonio|url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2006/dicembre/13/Siri_cardinale_dell_Ostpolitik_segreta_co_9_061213007.shtml|title=Siri, il cardinale dell'Ostpolitik segreta|language=it|work=Corriere della Sera|date=13 December 2006|page=43|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022102036/http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2006/dicembre/13/Siri_cardinale_dell_Ostpolitik_segreta_co_9_061213007.shtml|archive-date=22 October 2008|url-status=dead|quote=fu amico fraterno di monsignor Marcel Lefebvre, ma disapprovò le sue iniziative scismatiche e lo scongiurò fino all'ultimo («in ginocchio», gli scrisse) di non staccarsi da Roma. Infine ammise che non c' erano alternative alla scomunica del vescovo dissidente. «A Siri – osserva la sua biografa – si deve, con tutta probabilità, la mancanza di un seguito significativo di Lefebvre in Italia».}}

File:Genova-cattedrale di san lorenzo-tomba Giuseppe Siri.jpg

Siri reached age 80 in 1986 and thus lost the right to participate in future conclaves; he was the last remaining cardinal elector who had been elevated by Pope Pius XII. Siri resigned from his post in Genoa on 6 July 1987, after 41 years of service. He died in Villa Campostano, Genoa, at age 82, and was buried at San Lorenzo Metropolitan Cathedral in Genoa.

{{main|Siri thesis}}

Siri was considered a strong candidate in the 1958 papal conclave held to elect a successor to replace Pius XII. On the evening of 26 October, the first day of the conclave, apparent white smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, a traditional signal to the crowds in the square outside that a pope has been elected.The Tablet. 1 November 1958. Quoted in {{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Paul|title=The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia|date=2009|page=239}} No announcement was made, and after about half an hour the smoke turned black, indicating that there was no result. Vatican Radio corrected its report.

Sometime in the late 1980s, an American traditionalist Catholic named Gary Giuffre began to expound the belief that Siri was the true pope and that he was held captive in a monastery in Rome.{{cite book|last1=Cuneo|first1=Michael W.|title=The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism|date=1999|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=0-8018-6265-5|pages=84–5|url={{GBurl|id=8OL9tyvN5YcC|p=84}}|access-date=22 April 2017}} According to Giuffre and his followers, the white smoke that was seen on 26 October 1958 meant that a pope had been elected, and that pope was Siri, who was forced to reject the papacy because of threats from outside the conclave. Roncalli, who they claimed was a Freemason, was elected instead as Pope John XXIII. It was also claimed that this occurred during the 1963 papal conclave that elected Giovanni Battista Montini as Pope Paul VI.

Siri himself never made these claims and accepted the authority of all popes in his lifetime. He was appointed president of the Italian Episcopal Conference by Pope John XXIII in 1959, and remained in the post under Pope Paul VI until 1964.{{cite magazine|last1=Cardinale|first1=Gianni|title=The Italian Episcopal Conference and its Presidents|magazine=30 Days|date=2007|number=2|url=http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_13529_l3.htm|access-date=23 April 2017}} He was a candidate for pope in the August 1978 papal conclave that followed the death of Paul VI, where he is thought to have led in the early ballot; the conclave eventually elected Albino Luciani as Pope John Paul I,{{cite news|last1=Allen|first1=John L. Jr.|title=How a pope is elected|url=http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/conclave/how_to.htm|access-date=23 April 2017|work=National Catholic Reporter|date=2005}} and again two months later in the October 1978 papal conclave, where he is also thought to have come within a few votes of election before the eventual election of Cardinal Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II.{{cite book|last1=Pham|first1=John-Peter|title=Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-534635-1|page=131|url={{GBurl|id=ahTU3koVfLEC|p=131}}|access-date=24 April 2017}} Siri never made any reference to what became known as the "Siri thesis", and there was no mention of it in his New York Times obituary,{{cite news|title=Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Of Genoa Is Dead at 82|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/03/obituaries/giuseppe-cardinal-siri-of-genoa-is-dead-at-82.html|access-date=23 April 2017|work=The New York Times|agency=AP|date=3 May 1989}} in the biography written by Raimondo Spiazzi,{{sfn|Spiazzi|1990}} or in a speech given by Giulio Andreotti on the centenary of Siri's birth in 2006.{{cite magazine|last1=Andreotti|first1=Giulio|author-link1=Giulio Andreotti|title=Defender of Tradition and of workers' rights|magazine=30 Days|date=2006|number=4|url=http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_10414_l3.htm|access-date=26 April 2017}}

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book|editor-last=Spiazzi|editor-first=Raimondo|author-link=Raimondo Spiazzi|title=Il cardinale Giuseppe Siri, arcivescovo di Genova dal 1946 al 1987: la vita, l'insegnamento, l'eredità spirituale, le memorie|language=it|location=Bologna|publisher=Studio domenicano|year=1990|isbn=88-7094-018-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Buonasorte|first=Nicla|title=Siri: tradizione e Novecento|language=it|location=Bologna|publisher=Il Mulino|year=2006|isbn=88-15-11350-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Siri|first=Giuseppe|title=Getsemani: Riflessioni sul movimento teologico contemporaneo|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Fraternità della SS. Vergine Maria|year=1980|id={{ICCU|IT\ICCU\TO0\0554891}}}}
• {{cite book|last=Lai|first=Benny|title=Il Papa non eletto: Giuseppe Siri, cardinale di Santa Romana Chiesa|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Laterza|year=1993|isbn=88-420-4267-6}}

{{Commons category|Giuseppe Siri}}

• [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-s.htm#Siri Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140817213840/http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-s.htm#Siri |date=17 August 2014 }}
• [http://www.thepopeinred.com Main website propounding the Siri thesis]
• [http://www.todayscatholicworld.com/my-father-siri-book-mio-padre.pdf "Mio Padre" ("My Father") by Giuseppe Siri, 1975 (in English).]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150703073251/http://www.catholicactionchat.com/board/14/pope-gregory-xvii-cardinal-siri Discussions about the Siri thesis]

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{{succession box| before=Pietro Boetto | title=Archbishop of Genoa | years=14 May 1946 – 6 July 1987| after=Giovanni Canestri}}

{{succession box| before=Maurilio Fossati | title=President of the Italian Episcopal Conference | years= 1959–1965| after= Collective Presidency of Giovanni Colombo, Ermenegildo Florit and Giovanni Urbani}}

{{succession box| before=Carlos Vasconcellos | title=Cardinal Protopriest | years=18 September 1982 – 2 May 1989| after= Franz König}}

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Category:1906 births

Category:1989 deaths

Category:Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII

Category:20th-century Italian cardinals

Category:Roman Catholic archbishops of Genoa

Category:20th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops

Category:Italian resistance movement members

Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council

Category:Coetus Internationalis Patrum

Category:Pontifical Gregorian University alumni

Category:Italian anti-communists

Category:Anti-Masonry

Category:Livias