Angelo Dell'Acqua

Angelo Dell'Acqua (December 9, 1903&mdash;August 27, 1972) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Vicar General of Rome from 1968 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967.

Biography
Angelo Dell'Acqua was born in Milan to Giovanni Dell'Acqua and his wife Giuseppina Varalli. He studied at the seminaries in Monza and Milan (obtaining a doctorate in theology from the latter), and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he earned a doctorate in canon law. After receiving the diaconate on December 19, 1925, Dell'Aqua was ordained a priest by Cardinal Eugenio Tosi on May 9, 1926. He undertook pastoral ministry in Milan and was private secretary to its Archbishop from 1928 to 1929. After finishing his studies in 1931, he was raised to the rank of Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness on December 19 of that same year. Dell'Acqua was secretary of the apostolic delegation to Turkey and Greece from 1931 to 1935. He then worked as rector of the Major Seminary of the Diocese of Rome until 1938, during which time he was named a Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on June 15, 1936.

In 1938, Dell'Acqua entered the Roman Curia, as a staff member of the Secretariat of State, whilst performing pastoral work in Rome until 1950. He was later made Undersecretary adjunct of the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs (August 28, 1950). On November 1, 1954 he succeeded Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, who was named Archbishop of Milan on the same day, as Substitute of the Secretary of State.

On December 14, 1958, Dell'Acqua was appointed titular Archbishop of Chalcedon by Pope John XXIII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following December 27 from Pope John, with Bishops Girolamo Bortignon, OFM Cap, and Gioacchino Muccin serving as co-consecrators. From 1962 to 1965, Dell'Acqua attended the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Paul VI created him Cardinal Priest of Ss. Ambrogio e Carlo in the consistory of June 26, 1967, in advance for Dell'Acqua's appointment as the first President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See on September 23 of that same year. The Cardinal was named Vicar General of Rome and thus the person in charge of the pastoral care of the diocese on behalf of the Bishop of Rome, and represented Paul VI at the funeral of Senator Robert Kennedy on June 8, 1968. Dell'Acqua received honorary doctorates from Loyola University, University of Chicago and Fordham University that same year. He was also a close friend of Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro.

Dell'Acqua died from a sudden heart attack at the entrance of the Rosary Basilica during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, at age 68. Initially buried in his family's tomb at the Sesto Calende cemetery, his remains were transferred on August 31, 1997, to the very parish church in Sesto Calende where he had been ordained to the priesthood.

Trivia

 * In 1954, then Monsignor Dell'Acqua received a phone call from an ill Pope Pius XII, who was suffering from gastric problems, and quickly called for the latter's physician, Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi.
 * From November 7, 1970 until his death, the Cardinal was Archpriest of the Lateran Basilica.