Mario Pio Gaspari (8 April 1918 – 23 June 1983) was an Italian prelate of the

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 ...

who worked in the diplomatic service of the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

Biography

Mario Pio Gaspari was born on 8 April 1918 in

San Felice sul Panaro San Felice sul Panaro ( Sanfeliciano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Modena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about northeast of Modena. San Felice sul Panaro since Roman times ha ...

Province of Modena The Province of Modena ( it, Provincia di Modena) is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Modena. It has an area of and a total population of about 701,000 (2015). There are 48 ''comuni'' (singular: ''co ...

. He was ordained a priest on 21 July 1940. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See and devoted himself largely to Latin American affaires, serving in the nunciatures in Venezuela and Brazil. On 5 August 1967, Pope Paul named him to succeed

Agostino Casaroli Agostino Casaroli (24 November 1914 – 9 June 1998) was an Italian Catholic priest and diplomat for the Holy See, who became Cardinal Secretary of State. He was the most important figure behind the Vatican's efforts to deal with the persecuti ...

as Undersecretary of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church (later merged into the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. On 22 September 1972, the Italian government honor Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana On 6 June 1973,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

appointed him Titular Archbishop of Numida and

Apostolic Legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...

to Mexico. On 29 June 1973, he received his episcopal consecration from Pope Paul. On 16 November 1977, Pope Paul named him

Apostolic Pro-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 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

visited Japan in 1981 while Gaspari was nuncio there. He died of heart failure on 23 June 1983 at the age of 65 and Japan's bishops celebrated a funeral Mass on 30 June. Casaroli, now a cardinal, spoke at his funeral in

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal en ...

on 7 July 1983.

Biography

References

Further reading