Mariano Cardinal Rampolla (Full name Count Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro) (Poizzi , Sicily August 17, 1843 – December 17, 1913, in Rome) Rampolla was appointed a Cardinal and Papal Secretary of State by Pope Leo XIII in 1887, having been Papal Nuncio to Spain. In both offices he employed Giacomo della Chiesa, the future Benedict XV, as his secretary. He was widely expected to succeed to the Papacy on Leo XIII's death in 1903, but Austria (one of the three Catholic countries with such a capacity) imposed the veto through Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko, Prince-Bishop of Krakow (who was subsequently awarded the highest Austro-Hungarian medal, the Grand Cross of State ). The Austrian opposition was a result of the pro-French position Rampolla had adopted (which had been promoted by Leo XIII).

Up until this point Rampolla had been building momentum toward election, despite the opposition of the Dean of the Sacred College, Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano . While formally protesting this intrusion, however, the Cardinals would not specifically offend such a prominent Catholic monarch's will, and support for Rampolla dissipated, leading to the election of Giuseppe Cardinal Sarto as Pope Pius X. Explicitly abolishing the "veto" was one of the new Pope's first official acts. As Pius X chose the secretary of the conclave, Rafael Merry del Val , to replace Rampolla as Secretary of State, Rampolla spent his remaining years in less prominent positions, serving in his last year as Librarian of the Church.

See also

• Papal conclave, 1903

References

• Francis A. Burkle-Young, Papal Elections in the Age of Transition 1878-1922 published 2000 by Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0739101145