Pietro Sambi
Encyclopedia
Pietro Sambi was an Italian
Roman Catholic prelate
who served in the Vatican's
Secretariat of State
. At the time of his death, he was the Titular Archbishop of Bellicastrum
and the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States
.
(Forlì-Cesena
), Italy
on 27 June 1938 and spoke Italian, English, French and Spanish.
to the priesthood
for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro
on 14 March 1964, and began work in the diplomatic service
of the Secretariat of State in 1969, serving at the nunciatures in Cameroon
. He was transferred to the Apostolic Nunciature in Jerusalem on 19 July 1971, and subsequently to the Apostolic Nunciatures in Cuba in 1974, Algeria in 1978, Nicaragua in 1979, Belgium in 1981, and then India in May 1984 with the rank of counselor.
On 10 October 1985, Sambi was named the pro-nuncio to Burundi
by Pope John Paul II
, and was ordained as a bishop
as the titular archbishop of Bellicastrum
. In 1991 he was made the pro-nuncio to Indonesia
, and in 1998 was named nuncio to Israel
and Cyprus
and apostolic delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine
. Pope Benedict XVI
named Archbishop Sambi as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States on December 17, 2005. He was installed in early 2006.
During Pope Benedict's April 2008 visit to the U.S., Archbishop Sambi accompanied the Pope and hosted him at the Apostolic Nunciature, where the Pope held a historic private meeting with five victims of clergy sexual abuse. Archbishop Sambi recognized the global reach of the U.S. and American culture, and the immense contribution to the country and the world of the American Catholic church- particularly through its charitable work and its healthcare and educational institutions. He toured the damage left by Hurricane Katrina during the summer of 2006, shortly after his appointment. In 2007, he spoke at a convention of the National Catholic Educational Association
, praising teachers in Catholic schools. During the 10th anniversary observance in 2009 of the Joint Declaration on Justification, the Archbishop told the Washington audience that charitable love and mutual respect were paramount, just as it was during the founding of the Church and in other earlier times, for any hope of progress in ecumenical relations and to remain faithful to Christ's expectations of his disciples regarding their treatment of one another (the Archbishop himself was widely respected in the American church for these qualities). Sambi was the recipient of many honors, including an honorary doctorate received on May 8, 2011 from Regis University
in Denver, Colorado
as well as the 2009 Living Stones Solidarity Award of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (as Nuncio there before coming to America, Archbishop Sambi had tried to improve access to holy sites, Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue, the Israeli-Palestinian talks, and the ability of Arab Israeli Catholic priests to serve with more ease in Israel). In September 2010, he presided at a Mass to mark the 13th anniversary of the death of Blessed Mother Teresa
, which coincided with a U.S. postal commemmoration of her.
on 22 July 2011, Sambi underwent lung surgery and developed complications that required the temporary use of assisted ventilation. The Apostolic Nunciature and Sambi's family asked that bishops, priests, religious, and the lay faithful offer sacrifices and prayers for the health of the Apostolic Nuncio.
On 27 July 2011, it was announced that Archbishop Sambi, 73, had died, apparently from complications relating to the lung surgery. Many American Bishops, including New York City's Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan, president of the American bishops' conference, released statements expressing sorrow at his death. The body, after lying in state at the Apostolic Nunciature for two days, arrived at the airport in Rimini, Italy the morning of Sunday, July 31, 2011, and was taken to the parish church in his hometown, Sogliano al Rubicone, Italy. A prayer service was held that night in the Church of St. Lawrence, and another is planned for the evening of Monday, August 1. The Church will be open for mourners to pay their respects until the afternoon of the following day, Tuesday, August 2, when the casket will be taken from the Church to Matteotti Square in the town of about 3,200 residents. Monsignor Luigi Ricci, Vicar General of the Diocese of Rimini and pastor of St. Lawrence, said the Funeral Mass there will begin at 4:00 P.M. After the Funeral Mass there, parishioners will walk in procession, carrying the casket to the town's cemetery. His Excellency, the Most Reverend Bishop Francesco Lambiasi of Rimini will preside at that Funeral Mass. Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu
, the Vatican's Substitute for General Affairs at the Secretariat of State, and Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello
, the Apostolic Nuncio to Italy, will be among the concelebrants. A Memorial Mass for the Nuncio, to coincide with the Fall meeting of the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), was held on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Lord. Archbishop Dolan of New York, President of the USCCB, was the principal celebrant, with many of the country's Bishops, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., concelebrating, along with the current charge d'affaires
at the Nunciature, Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume. Vatican officials later confirmed reports that had Archbishop Sambi lived and been able to continue to serve, he would have been transferred to a senior post in the Roman Curia that eventually would have likely raised him to the cardinalate.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Roman Catholic prelate
Prelate
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before", "be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one set over others.-Related...
who served in the Vatican's
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
Secretariat of State
Secretariat of State (Vatican)
The Secretariat of State is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the government of the Roman Catholic Church. It is headed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., and performs all the political and diplomatic functions of Vatican City and the Holy See...
. At the time of his death, he was the Titular Archbishop of Bellicastrum
Belcastro
Belcastro is a village and comune in the province of Catanzaro, in the Calabria region of southern Italy....
and the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Biography
Sambi was born in Sogliano al RubiconeSogliano al Rubicone
Sogliano al Rubicone is a comune in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 90 km southeast of Bologna and about 35 km southeast of Forlì....
(Forlì-Cesena
Province of Forlì-Cesena
The Province of Forlì-Cesena is a province in the Emilia–Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Forlì.It has an area of 2,377 km², and a total population of 371,318 . There are 30 comuni in the province, see Comuni of the Province of Forlì-Cesena...
), Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on 27 June 1938 and spoke Italian, English, French and Spanish.
Ecclesiastical career
He was ordainedHoly Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
to the priesthood
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro
Roman Catholic Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro
The Italian Catholic diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro was until 1977 the historic diocese of Montefeltro. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Ravenna-Cervia...
on 14 March 1964, and began work in the diplomatic service
Diplomatic service
Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel enjoy diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to other countries...
of the Secretariat of State in 1969, serving at the nunciatures in Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
. He was transferred to the Apostolic Nunciature in Jerusalem on 19 July 1971, and subsequently to the Apostolic Nunciatures in Cuba in 1974, Algeria in 1978, Nicaragua in 1979, Belgium in 1981, and then India in May 1984 with the rank of counselor.
On 10 October 1985, Sambi was named the pro-nuncio to Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, and was ordained as a bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
as the titular archbishop of Bellicastrum
Belcastro
Belcastro is a village and comune in the province of Catanzaro, in the Calabria region of southern Italy....
. In 1991 he was made the pro-nuncio to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, and in 1998 was named nuncio to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and apostolic delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
named Archbishop Sambi as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States on December 17, 2005. He was installed in early 2006.
During Pope Benedict's April 2008 visit to the U.S., Archbishop Sambi accompanied the Pope and hosted him at the Apostolic Nunciature, where the Pope held a historic private meeting with five victims of clergy sexual abuse. Archbishop Sambi recognized the global reach of the U.S. and American culture, and the immense contribution to the country and the world of the American Catholic church- particularly through its charitable work and its healthcare and educational institutions. He toured the damage left by Hurricane Katrina during the summer of 2006, shortly after his appointment. In 2007, he spoke at a convention of the National Catholic Educational Association
National Catholic Educational Association
The National Catholic Educational Association is a private professional educational association of over 200,000 educators in Catholic schools, universities, and religious education programs...
, praising teachers in Catholic schools. During the 10th anniversary observance in 2009 of the Joint Declaration on Justification, the Archbishop told the Washington audience that charitable love and mutual respect were paramount, just as it was during the founding of the Church and in other earlier times, for any hope of progress in ecumenical relations and to remain faithful to Christ's expectations of his disciples regarding their treatment of one another (the Archbishop himself was widely respected in the American church for these qualities). Sambi was the recipient of many honors, including an honorary doctorate received on May 8, 2011 from Regis University
Regis University
Regis University is a private, co-educational Roman Catholic, Jesuit university in the United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1877, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...
in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
as well as the 2009 Living Stones Solidarity Award of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (as Nuncio there before coming to America, Archbishop Sambi had tried to improve access to holy sites, Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue, the Israeli-Palestinian talks, and the ability of Arab Israeli Catholic priests to serve with more ease in Israel). In September 2010, he presided at a Mass to mark the 13th anniversary of the death of Blessed Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
, which coincided with a U.S. postal commemmoration of her.
Health problems and death
According to a press release advisory jointly issued by the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States and the United States Conference of Catholic BishopsUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...
on 22 July 2011, Sambi underwent lung surgery and developed complications that required the temporary use of assisted ventilation. The Apostolic Nunciature and Sambi's family asked that bishops, priests, religious, and the lay faithful offer sacrifices and prayers for the health of the Apostolic Nuncio.
On 27 July 2011, it was announced that Archbishop Sambi, 73, had died, apparently from complications relating to the lung surgery. Many American Bishops, including New York City's Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan, president of the American bishops' conference, released statements expressing sorrow at his death. The body, after lying in state at the Apostolic Nunciature for two days, arrived at the airport in Rimini, Italy the morning of Sunday, July 31, 2011, and was taken to the parish church in his hometown, Sogliano al Rubicone, Italy. A prayer service was held that night in the Church of St. Lawrence, and another is planned for the evening of Monday, August 1. The Church will be open for mourners to pay their respects until the afternoon of the following day, Tuesday, August 2, when the casket will be taken from the Church to Matteotti Square in the town of about 3,200 residents. Monsignor Luigi Ricci, Vicar General of the Diocese of Rimini and pastor of St. Lawrence, said the Funeral Mass there will begin at 4:00 P.M. After the Funeral Mass there, parishioners will walk in procession, carrying the casket to the town's cemetery. His Excellency, the Most Reverend Bishop Francesco Lambiasi of Rimini will preside at that Funeral Mass. Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu
Giovanni Angelo Becciu
Giovanni Angelo Becciu is the current Substitute for General Affairs since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 10 May 2011. Archbishop Becciu had previously been nuncio to Cuba....
, the Vatican's Substitute for General Affairs at the Secretariat of State, and Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello
Giuseppe Bertello
Giuseppe Bertello is a Catholic prelate and currently President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of Vatican City State.-Early life:...
, the Apostolic Nuncio to Italy, will be among the concelebrants. A Memorial Mass for the Nuncio, to coincide with the Fall meeting of the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), was held on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Lord. Archbishop Dolan of New York, President of the USCCB, was the principal celebrant, with many of the country's Bishops, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., concelebrating, along with the current charge d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
at the Nunciature, Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume. Vatican officials later confirmed reports that had Archbishop Sambi lived and been able to continue to serve, he would have been transferred to a senior post in the Roman Curia that eventually would have likely raised him to the cardinalate.