Luigi Traglia

Luigi Traglia (April 3, 1895 – November 22, 1977) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Vicar General of Rome from 1965 to 1968, and Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1974 until his death. Traglia was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.

Biography
Luigi Traglia was born in Albano Laziale, and studied at the Pontifical Lateran University and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood by Basilio Cardinal Pompilj on August 10, 1917, and then finished his studies in 1919. While teaching at the Pontifical Urbaniana University from 1919 to 1936, Traglia was also an official of the Sacred Congregations of Seminaries and Universities and of the Propagation of the Faith from 1927 to 1930. On August 18, 1930, he became assessor and subpromoter-general of the faith in the latter congregation. He was raised to the rank of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on February 22, 1932, and later Auditor of the Roman Rota on September 17, 1936.

On December 21, 1936, Traglia was appointed Vice-Gerent of Rome and Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Palaestina. He received his episcopal consecration on January 6, 1937, from Cardinal Francesco Marchetti-Selvaggiani, with Archbishop Domenico Spolverini and Bishop Angelo Calabretta serving as co-consecrators, in the Lateran Basilica. Traglia was later named President of the Special Committee for the Marian Holy Year on October 7, 1953, and of the Commission for the first Roman synod in 1959.

He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Andrea della Valle by Pope John XXIII in the consistory of March 28, 1960. Pope Paul VI later changed Traglia's titular church to that of San Lorenzo in Damaso on April 28, 1969. On March 15, 1972, he was elevated to Cardinal Bishop of Albano.

From 1962 to 1965, Traglia participated in the Second Vatican Council, during the course of which he served as a cardinal elector in the 1963 papal conclave that selected Pope Paul VI. He was named Vicar General of Rome on March 30, 1965. In this position, the Cardinal governed the diocese in the name of the Pope, who is the Bishop of Rome. After resigning as Cardinal Vicar on January 9, 1968, Traglia was appointed Apostolic Chancellor on the following January 13. He resigned the post on February 7, 1973, not long before the office was abolished on February 27 of that same year. Traglia was elected and confirmed as Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals on March 24, 1972, later ascending to Dean of the College of Cardinals and thus Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, while retaining his previous suburbicarian title, on January 7, 1974. On December 24 of that same year, he served as papal legate to the opening of the Holy Door at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

Luigi Cardinal Traglia died in Rome in 1977.