Efrem Forni

Efrem Forni (January 10, 1889&mdash;February 26, 1976) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Nuncio to Belgium and Internuncio to Luxembourg from 1953 to 1962, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1962.

Biography
Born in Milan,second son of Don Enrico Giancarlo Forni and Donna Angela Ambrosoli, H.Eminence Cardinal Efrem Leone Pio Forni studied at the University of Milan, and the Pontifical Gregorian University and Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 6, 1913, and then taught at the archiepiscopal college of Cantù and at the college of d'Arona until 1921. Forni was secretary (1921-1926) and later auditor (1926-1928) of the Portuguese nunciature. In the French nunciature, he was auditor (1928) and counselor (1937). He was raised to the rank of Honorary Chamberlain on October 18, 1921, Privy Chamberlain on June 20, 1923, and finally Domestic Prelate on June 20, 1937.

On November 27, 1937, Forni was appointed Nuncio to Ecuador and Titular Archbishop of Darnis. He received his episcopal consecration on February i20, 1938, from Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, with Archbishops Alberto Levame and Luigi Traglia serving as co-consecrators, in the church of San Carlo al Corso in Rome. After serving as papal legate to the 1949 National Eucharistic Congress in Ecuador, Forni was named Nuncio to Belgium and Internuncio to Luxembourg on November 9, 1953. On July 8, 1956, he again served as a papal legate, this time to bestow the Golden Rose on the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.He was "Bali' Cavaliere di Gran Croce d'Onore e Devozione" of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, of the Order of the Holy Sepulcre of Jerusalem and of many other Orders of Chivalry.

Pope John XXIII created him Cardinal Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, in Rome, in the consistory of March 19, 1962, when he resigned his diplomatic posts. From 1962 to 1965, the Cardinal attended the Second Vatican Council, during the course of which he participated in the 1963 papal conclave that selected Pope Paul VI.

Cardinal Forni died in Rome, at age 87. He is not buried in his family's plot, but in St. Francis Church in Gallarate because he always said that his religious call was born down there.