BEDINI, GAETANO

Cardinal, priest, diplomat, administrator; b. Sinigaglia, Italy, May 15, 1806; d. Viterbo, Sept. 6, 1864. After his ordination at Sinigaglia on Dec. 20, 1828, by Cardinal Fabrizio Sceberas-Testaferrata, Bedini held a variety of posts. He was appointed secretary to Cardinal Ludovico Altieri, papal nuncio to Vienna (1838); then became apostolic internuncio to the Imperial Court of Brazil (1846); substitute secretary of state of the Vatican (1848); prolegate to Bologna (1849), and later extraordinary pontifical commissioner of the four legations of Bologna, Ferrara, Forti, and Ravenna. Raised to the rank of titular archbishop of Thebes and apostolic nuncio to Brazil (March 15, 1852), he was consecrated in Rome in May of 1852 by Cardinal Altieri. Supposedly on his way to Brazil, Bedini visited the United States (June 30, 1853 through Feb. 4, 1854). In June of 1856 Pius IX named him secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. On March 18, 1861, he was elevated to the See of Viterbo-Toscanella and in the consistory of Sept. 27, 1861, he was created cardinal priest with the title church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.

Bedini's trip to the United States secured his place in the history of the American Church. He came to investigate the Church in the United States and the possibility of establishing an apostolic nunciature in Washington. Rome needed more information about the missionary Church in the United States. Astounded at the continued increase in the number of Catholics and the resulting pressing need for more bishops, dioceses, priests, churches, and charitable institutions, the Holy See desired a firsthand report. The need for this knowledge was made sharply evident by Rome's failure to assess the rampaging anti-Catholicism in the United States at that time.

Almost as soon as he landed in New York, Bedini felt the sting of this anti-Catholicism, which was instigated by German and Italian revolutionaries and American nativists and encouraged by some of the press during his visit to more than 20 cities in the United States and Canada. In Philadelphia, Pa., and Buffalo, N.Y., he was unsuccessful in solving the trustee problems. There were disturbances in Pittsburgh, Pa., and a riot in Cincinnati, Ohio, while he was present, and he was constrained to sail secretly from New York.

When he returned to Rome, without going to Brazil, he inspired the foundation of the North American College. The first part of the report he submitted to the Vatican secretary of state gave a detailed description of the Church in the United States; the second part stressed the necessity, but also inopportuneness, of establishing an apostolic nunciature in Washington. The Bedini mission having failed, Rome waited until 1893 to act in this matter, and then erected an apostolic delegation.

Bibliography: j. f. connelly, The Visit of Archbishop Bedini to the United States of America (Rome 1960).

[j. f. connelly]