Lorenzo Lauri

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Lorenzo Cardinal Lauri
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
relstyle=Cardinal
See=Ephesus (titular) |

Lorenzo Cardinal Lauri (October 15, 1864—October 8, 1941) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Major Penitentiary from 1927 and Camerlengo from 1939 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1926.

Biography

Lorenzo Lauri was born in Rome, and studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary before being ordained a priest on June 4, 1887. He then taught at the Pontifical Roman Seminary and the Pontifical Urbaniana University until 1910; he had also served as an official of the Vicariate of Rome since 1895, and had been made a canon of the chapter of S. Lorenzo in Damaso basilica in 1901. After being named Substitute of the regent of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary on February 5, 1910, Lauri was raised to the rank of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on April 5 of that same year.

On January 5, 1917, Lauri was appointed Internuncio to Peru and Titular Archbishop of "Ephesus" by Pope Benedict XV. He received his episcopal consecration on the following January 21 from Donato Cardinal Sbarretti, with Archbishop Vincenzo Sardi di Rivisondoli and Bishop Americo Bevilacqua serving as co-consecrators. Lauri became a full nuncio upon the establishment of complete diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Peru on July 20, 1917. He was later named Nuncio to Poland on May 25, 1921, succeeding Achille Ratti. In this post, Lauri negotiated the concordat between the Vatican and the Second Polish Republic.

Pope Pius XI created Lauri Cardinal Priest of "S. Pancrazio" in the consistory of December 20, 1926, the same day that he resigned as Poland's nuncio. Returning to the Roman Curia, he was appointed Major Penitentiary on July 31, 1927. The Cardinal also served as papal legate to the International Eucharistic Congress at Dublin in 1932. Lauri was Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals on June 15, 1936 to December 13, 1937, and Protector of the Pontifical North American College from 1937 to 1941. It was to Cardinal Lauri that Pius XI made his final confession. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1939 papal conclave, which selected Pope Pius XII. The new Pope appointed Lauri to replace him as Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church on December 11 of that year.

Cardinal Lauri died in Rome, at age 76 (a week before his next birthday). He is buried in the Campo di Verano cemetery.