Valerio Cardinal Valeri (November 7, 1883—July 22, 1963) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious in the Roman Curia from 1953 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.

Biography

Valerio Valeri was born in Santa Fiora, and studied at the Roman-Pio Seminary and the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare, where he was made a professor in 1904. Ordained to the priesthood on December 21, 1907, he then taught at the Pontifical Regional Seminary in Fano until 1909. After serving as a military chaplain during World War I, Valeri entered the Roman Curia, as a staff member of the Secretariat of State, in 1920. From 1921 to 1927, he was auditor to the French nunciature. He was raised to the rank of Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness on July 6, 1921, and later Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on July 22, 1923.

On October 18, 1927, Valeri was appointed Titular Archbishop of Ephesus and Apostolic Delegate to Egypt and Arabia. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 28 from Donato Cardinal Sbarretti, with Archbishop Pietro Benedetti, MSC, and Bishop Giuseppe Angelucci serving as co-consecrators. Valeri was later named Nuncio to Romania on July 1, 1933, and to France on July 11, 1936. In August 1942, the nuncio disputed Marshal Pétain's claim that Pope Pius XII understood and approved of France's increased hostility towards the Jews . He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur upon leaving France in 1944 to again work in the Secretariat of State, specifically the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. After becoming President of the Central Committee for the Holy Year on June 28, 1948, Valeri was made assessor of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches on September 1 of that same year.

He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Silvestro in Capite by Pius XII in the consistory of January 12, 1953. Pope Pius advanced him to Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious five days later, on January 17. Valeri was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1958 papal conclave that selected Pope John XXIII, who had earlier succeeded him as the French nuncio. The Cardinal lived long enough to only attend the first session of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, and to participate in the conclave of 1963, which resulted in the election of Pope Paul VI.

Valeri died in Rome, at age 79. He is buried in his family's tomb in Santa Fiora.

Trivia

• President de Gaulle had insisted that Valeri, then Nuncio to France, be removed from his post for collaborating with the Vichy regime .

References

External links

• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
• Catholic-Hierarchy