Paolo Dezza

Paolo Cardinal Dezza, SJ ( born December 13, 1901 in Parma, Italy, † December 17, 1999 in Rome ) was an Italian cardinal and appointed by Pope John Paul II delegate of the Society of Jesus.

Life

With 17 years Dezza entered the Jesuit order on 2 December 1918. He completed his studies in Madrid ( philosophy) and Innsbruck (Catholic theology ). For a short time Dezza also went to the University of Naples.

On March 25, 1928 Dezza received the sacrament of Holy Orders. In the same year he was appointed for four years as a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The following three years, he had to spend due to illness in Switzerland.

As of December 26, 1935 Dezza took over even the Office of the Provincial for the Province of Veneto and Milan. On August 5, 1941, he was appointed rector of the Gregorian University and held this office for about 10 years. Great deal of interest Dezza shortly after the war, when he took up personally the Roman Chief Rabbi Israel Zolli in the Catholic Church.

In the years 1951-1965 he was the rector of the Collegium Bellarminum ( Collegio San Roberto Bellarmine ) in Rome. During this time, Dezza was also Secretary General of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (Fédération Internationale des Universités Catholiques - FIUC ).

When in 1981 the 28th General Minister of the Order ( colloquially " General "), and Pedro Arrupe, suffered a severe stroke, , Pope John Paul II, it was a delegate of the Order (together with Giuseppe Pittau as coadjutor ) a. The Pope himself took over ( represented by its delegate ) the government of the Order and paid Dezza ( and Pittau ) with full powers from. This approach was ambivalent evaluated in religious and church, because it deviated from the normal procedure of an immediate election of a successor of a then chosen to be a lifetime general. The impression of a possibly necessary emergency action was brought, and interpreted in some quarters as a distrust of the Order and Arrupe. By the choice of Peter Hans Kolvenbach as the successor of Arrupe and 29 General of the Order, this task Dezzas was terminated as a delegate. The election took place on 13 September 1983 as part of the 33rd General Congregation.

On June 28, 1991 was Dezza, who was now seriously ill and slowly went blind, with 89 years as cardinal deacon with the title diakonia of St. Ignatius of Loyola appointed in Campo Marzio. On 17 December 1999 Paolo Dezza died at the age of 98 years.

Works

• Adnotationes in tractatum de ontologia. Rome, 1930
• La filosophia del christianesimo. Milan, 1949
• Metaphysica generalis. Rome, 1964