Feb 10 2007
The Great Anti-Mafia Cardinal - Salvatore Pappalardo (1918-2006)
Cardinal Carpino was therefore appointed as a Referendary for Relations in the Sacred Congregation for Bishops on October 19, 1970. He was named Cardinal Bishop of the title of the Suburbicarian See of Albano on January 27, 1978. Carpino lost the right to participate in the Conclave when turned 80 years of age on May 18, 1985. He died aged 88 on October 5, 1993, at dawn in Rome after receiving the last rites from Msgr. Alois Wagner (1924-2002), Titular Bishop of Siccenna and Vice-President of the Pontificial Concil Cor Unum and was assisted by his sister Concettina Carpino. Carpino’s funeral mass, presided by Pope John Paul II, assisted by thirty Cardinals and numerous Archbishops and Bishops, took place in the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica at 5.30pm on October 7, 1993. The body of the late Cardinal was flown to Monreale on October 8 and transferred to Palermo, where another funeral took place in that Cathedral celebrated by Salvatore Cassisa (1921-1997), Archbishop of Monreale and Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo, as his successor, together with almost all the Bishops of Sicily. After the funeral in Palermo, the body was taken to Palazzolo Acreide and a requiem mass was celebrated in the church of San Paolo by Msgr. Giuseppe Costanzo (1933- ), Archbishop of Siracusa, before the burial in the tomb of his family. Later, Carpino’s remains were transferred to the Cemetery Chapel of Palazzolo Acreide. On September 14, 1998, the remains were again transferred, this time to a definitive tomb at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Palermo.
Following his appointment as Archbishop of Palermo, Pope Paul VI (1897-1978), created Msgr. Salvatore Pappalardo as Cardinal Priest in the consistory of March 5, 1973, and received the red biretta and the title of Santa Maria d’Itria al Tritone on that same day. Later, the name of his titular church was changed to Santa Maria Odigitria dei Siciliani. He participated in the conclaves of August 25 to 26, 1978, in which the Patriarch of Venice, Msgr. Albino Luciani (1912-1978), was elected Pope and shortly afterwards in that of October 14 to 16, 1978, from which the Archbishop of Krakow, Msgr. Karol Wojtyla was chosen as successor to Peter’s Chair.
Cardinal Pappalardo visited Malta as a Special Papal Envoy to the 16th International Marian Congress which was held between September 15 to 18, 1983. He also served as Special Papal Envoy to the 22nd National Eucharistic Congress, held in Reggio Calabria, Italy, from June 5 to 12, 1988.
The slayings of prominent anti-Mafia prosecutors, prompted the Cardinal to publicly denounce the Mafia for over twenty five years, for example during the funeral of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, a General of the Italian Carabinieri, who was brutally murdered in Palermo on September 3, 1982. Tito Livio’s Latin phrase dum Romae consulitur, Saguntum expugnatur, quoted by the Cardinal in his homily accused the central government in Rome of looking the other way while the Mafia dominated. Pappalardo utterly distinguished himself with his strong public criticism of the Cosa Nostra.
