Giovanni Ferrofino (24 February 1912 – 20 December 2010) was an Italian

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Early life and ordination

Ferrofino was born in 1912 in the city of

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria ...

in north-west Italy. On 22 September 1934 he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

a priest of the Diocese of Alessandria.‘Archbishop Giovanni Ferrofino’
catholic-hierarchy.org.

Apostolic nuncio

On 8 February 1960 Ferrofino was appointed

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. The following 26 October 1961 he was appointed

Titular Archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Zenopolis in Isauria and

on 28 November 1961. Giovanni was appointed

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

on 3 November 1965 and resigned from the position on 29 September 1970.

Actions during the Second World War

During the Second World War, according to Gary Krupp of the

Pave the Way Foundation Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF) headed by Gary Krupp is a non-sectarian organization whose mission is to identify and eliminate non-theological obstacles between religions. The organization is dedicated to achieving peace by addressing intoleranc ...

, he personally acted on the direct orders of

Pius XII Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia. It may refer to: People Popes * Pope Pius (disambiguation) * Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect Given name * Pius B ...

twice a year to obtain visas for Jews arriving from Portugal to the Dominican Republic.‘Yad Vashem Honor Sought for Pius XII’
ZENIT. He traveled with the nuncio, archbishop

Maurilio Silvani Maurilio Silvani (24 August 1882 – 22 December 1947) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who devoted his entire career to the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He became an archbishop in 1936 and served as an Apostolic Nuncio from 1936 ...

, to get 800 visas per boat load twice a year from 1939 to 1945 and appealed directly to General

Rafael Trujillo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ( , ; 24 October 189130 May 1961), nicknamed ''El Jefe'' (, "The Chief" or "The Boss"), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. He ser ...

in the name of Pius XII. This action, Krupp said, saved over 10,000 Jews who were then routed into America with the help of Monsignor Ferrofino through Cuba, Mexico and Canada.

References

External links

‘Transcript of the video interview with Msgr. Giovanni Ferrofino’
Pave the Way Foundation. 1912 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular archbishops 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ecuador People from Alessandria Participants in the Second Vatican Council Apostolic Nuncios to Haiti Apostolic Nuncios to Ecuador {{Italy-RC-archbishop-stub