Styles of Antonio Cardinal Innocenti
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	{{{See}}}

Antonio Cardinal Innocenti (born August 23, 1915, Poppi, Italy) is a cardinal who was a mainstay of the Roman Curia and the Vatican diplomatic corps for many years. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (550x741, 86 KB) Description: Vestments of a cardinal: red cassock, rochet trimmed with lace, red chimere, apostolical cross. ... A style of office, or honorific, is a form of address which by tradition or law precedes a reference to a person who holds a title or post, or to the political office itself. ... August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official in the Roman Catholic Church, ranking just below the Pope and appointed by him as a member of the College of Cardinals during a consistory. ... The Roman Curia - usually (but simplistically) called the Vatican - is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See, coordinating and providing the necessary organisation for the correct functioning of the Catholic Church and the achievement of its goals. ...

Ordained in 1938 in Florence, Antonio Innocenti worked as a pastor in northern Italy for the following decade. His work helping Jews led to him narrowly escaping death from a firing squad: so much so that he was released only at the last minute! He was then called by Pope Pius XII to Rome and settled down to a career in the Curia. He served for most of the 1950s and 1960s in the papal nunciature in Switzerland, where, as he saw it, the major problems were "an opulent society, religious assistance to immigrants and relations with Christian of other denominations". Florences skyline Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ... Pope Pius XII (Latin: ), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (March 2, 1876 – October 9, 1958), reigned as the 260th pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and sovereign of Vatican City State from March 2, 1939 until his death. ...

On December 15, 1967, Innocenti was elevated by Pope Paul VI to the role of titular archbishop of Eclano and at exactly the same time appointed nuncio to Paraguay. He served as nuncio to Paraguay whilst holding a number of titular sees until 1973, when he was elevated further to the role of secretary of the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments (now the Congregation for Divine Worship) until 1980, when Innocenti became nuncio to Spain. Pope Paul VI (Latin: ), (Italian: Paolo VI), born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. ... (In the context of property law, title refers to ownership or documents of ownership; see title (property). ... The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum) is the congregation of the Roman Curia that oversees liturgical observance in the Catholic Church. ...

In 1985, Pope John Paul II rewarded the experienced prelate with elevation to cardinal and one year later Inncenti became prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, a post he was to hold until he passed the mandatory retirement age of seventy-five in 1991. During Innocenti's time as prefect, the Curia was extremely busy dealing with what was perceived as dangerous dissent from papal teaching, and Innocenti was heavily involved with many lay movements designed to restore orthodoxy among the Church's members. Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), (Italian: Giovanni Paolo II), born   (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005) reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from October... The Congregation for the Clergy (Congregatio pro Clericis) is the congregation of the Roman Curia responsibile for overseeing matters regarding priests and deacons, and overseeing the religious education of all Roman Catholics. ...

After stepping down from his post as Prefect in 1991, Innocenti gradually faded into retirement. When he turned eighty in 1995, he lost his right to vote in a papal conclave, and by 1999 he had completely retired to Piazza della Citta Leonina, where he still lives today at the age of ninety-one. The Sistine Chapel is the location of the conclave. ...

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