Cardinals at the center and in the periphery

The highest-ranking officials of the Roman Catholic Church are the cardinals. They are created by the pope and constitute the College of Cardinals. Since the eleventh century Cardinals elect the pope. Cardinals are in charge of the government of the Roman Catholic Church, the congregations and dicasteries of the Vatican. Cardinals are usually bishops and archbishops. Only the cardinals in the periphery are leading dioceses and archdioceses. The cardinals running the Roman curia are bishops and archbishops holding symbolically titles of ancient dioceses and archdioceses. In the sixth century the cardinals were helping the bishop of Rome governing the Roman church. Already in the 8th century they constituted a privileged class of the Roman clergy today they are at the top of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church under the pope.

Since the cardinals for centuries run the central government of the pope, the Roman curia, they appreciate the power to preside the congregations and dicasteries and are not eager to lose their powers to the bishops of a church council. Pope John XXIII was conscientious of this power structure and appointed curial cardinals that were presidents of the congregations as presidents of the preparing commissions for the upcoming council. John XXIII was not able to substitute the curial cardinals at the presidency of the preparatory commissions of the Second Vatican Council with cardinals from the periphery of the Roman Catholic Church. The grip on the Roman Catholic Church by the curial cardinals was too strong. John XXIII successfully limited the curial dominance of the preparatory commissions by prohibiting the curial secretaries and sub-secretaries of becoming secretaries of the preparing commissions (Komonchak, Joseph, 1995. “La lotta per il concilio durante la preparazione”. In Il cattolicesimo verso una nuova stagione. L`annuncio e la preparazione gennaio 1959 – settembre 1962. Vol. 1 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 177–380. 173. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

How could Pope John XXIII hope realizing the reform of the Roman Catholic Church by a pastoral council, if his curial officials that run the government of the Church do not want any reform? From 1959 to 1962 Pope John XXIII spontaneously and with diffuse allusions nurtured an image of “aggiornamento”, of making the Church fit for the needs of the present world. Tirelessly he insisted speaking of a Council that effectively would renew the Church. The liturgical movement, the ecclesiological importance given to the apostolate of the lay people, the restriction of clerical domination, the biblical movement that put at center the word of God, the theology that got back to the sources of the Church fathers and the ecumenical movement had one common aim: All pushed Rome to open the doors of the walls to the outside world; and there was hope that the pope’s primate that climaxed in Vatican I was about to be balanced by the sacramental communion of the episcopate (ibid. 177-181).

Pope John XXIII was president of the central preparatory commission, the commission that received all documents that the preparatory commission had presented. Pericle Felici (1911-1982) was secretary of the central preparatory commission. Its first meeting took place in mid-1961, only one year after its constitution. Felici used to meet personally with the secretaries of the preparatory commissions. Only in the theological preparatory commission the members were free to talk their minds and to present their ideas and arguments. Yves Congar observes in his diaries on the power structure of the preparatory commissions: There were two groups of members. There were the Roman members and consultants and the members and consultants that did not live in Rome. The Romans were together, could meet easily and express themselves freely. The non-Romans were dispersed, atomized and under the obligation to keep their contributions secret. They were well controlled by Rome. Congar’s diaries are an important source of informed testimony of events and discussions because Congar was member of the central preparatory commission where all the other commissions’ papers were discussed (ibid. 181-188).

From the second session of the central preparatory commission in November 1961 to the seventh session in Junie 1962 the prepared texts were studied and judged. When approved positive, the texts would be passed to Pope John XXIII, who would decide which texts would be presented at the Council (ibid. 321).

We must not forget that all the bishops, archbishops and cardinals once receiver their clerical socialization in a Roman Catholic seminary or a novitiate of a religious order. By their formation they had become obedient subjects of the Roman Catholic Church. Even as cardinals they were used to obey to the authority of the Church and her teachings. The seminary is a disciplinary apparatus and “emphasizes the elements of training, for the explicit production of ‘docile bodies’, that is, individuals who are shaped inside and outside according to the demands of the apparatus that is the Roman Catholic institutions” (Mendoza, Perseville, U. 2001. Foucault, Power, and Seminary Formation. Ateneo de Manila University.110. https://journals.ateneo.edu). No wonder, that the Cardinals König, Döpfner, Hurley and Alfrink did not complain about the prepared text on the sources of revelation with much lasting insistence in the second session of the central preparatory commission in November 1961. There was the exception of Cardinal Bea who had to resist the aggressive polemics of Cardinal Ottaviani, the president of the theological preparatory commission who was responsible for the presented text (Komonchak 1995. 327).

The group of Cardinals that wanted reforms had to learn to speak up during the preparation. Alfrink, Suenens, Léger, König, Liénart and above all Montini till the spring of 1962 were timid and awkwardly helpless when encountering the Vatican in-crowd of authorities (Alberigo, Giuseppe. 1995. “Preparazione per quale concilio?” In Il cattolicesimo verso una nuova stagione. L`annuncio e la preparazione gennaio 1959 – settembre 1962. Vol. 1 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 519–26. 522. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

In embarrassment they looked to the floor and stood not up to the coronated bureaucrats in red. The Church as a whole was unprepared to take responsibility and participate actively in the preparation of the Council. Consequently, the preparation of the Council suffered from the standstill of the Church.

On February 2, 1962, Pope John announced that the Council would open the 11th of October of that year. John XXIII knew about his deteriorating health condition. Was it because of this reason that he hoped the Council would need only one or two sessions? Suenens pointed at the many conflicts of the Central Commission and Koenig protested the fierce resistance to any reform documented by the Curial bureaucrats in the texts that were prepared and wanted at the Council the same creative atmosphere of free discussion as he experienced at the Central Preparatory Commission. Pope John wanted the Council to discuss freely even if the discussion would demand major changes in the prepared documents. Finally, there was no decision taken how long the Council would work. Pope John only in the spring of 1962, that is one year after the first protests, began taking seriously what Suenens, Koenig, Frings and others were complaining about (Komonchak 1995. 363-372).

In the central preparatory commission, there were two blocks emerging: There were the Cardinals Alfrink, Doepfner, Frings, Koenig, Montini, Léger, Liénart, the Patriarch Maximos IV and Cardinal Suenens (1904-1996) the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium, who were critical of the prepared texts. And there were the Cardinals Ottaviani, Ruffini and Siri who defended the prepared texts together with Archbishop Lefebvre and the then Master General of the Dominicans Michael Brown, who defended the prepared texts (ibid. 325).

The Council was prepared in a confused manner. Suenens wrote a paper to organize the work of the Council in theological coherence got the sympathy of the Pope but no change of the agenda of the first period of the Council. Pope John restrained in the preparatory phase to intervene directly and preferred formal declarations. The Central Commission was not able to assume ruling authority. In the end, the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council was not very successful. The bishops of the Council wanted to stay coherent with Pope John’s vision for the Council and found it necessary to repudiate much of the work of the preparatory phase (ibid. 379).

From the journal of the soul of Pope John we know that prayer, the Bible and needs of the people were at the center of his existential attention. Somehow, he managed in the 3 months before the Council to keep out of the system and concentrated on the collection of the hearts inside and outside of Rome and the Vatican. In his audiences he reached men and women from all over the world and listened to their concerns, hopes and sorrows. John XXIII was a spiritual, theological and ecumenical leader. He was a leader to unity and love. In August 1962 he told Suenens in Castel Gandolfo that his part in the Council will be to suffer. John XXIII expressed his presentiment of mortal illness (Wittstadt, Klaus. 1995. “Alla vivgilia del concilio.” In Il cattolicesimo verso una nuova stagione. L`annuncio e la preparazione gennaio 1959 – settembre 1962. Vol. 1 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 429–518. 465. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

In the fall of 1962, the tensions between the Roman Curia and the assembly of bishops in the aula of St. Peters were a matter of fact. The curia was jealous of the privileged relationship of the pope with the Council. Would the Council get paralyzed by this conflict of interests between the curia and the Council? The pressure of public opinion for change was intense. To get again the momentum of hopes and interests in the Council Pope John’s radio message from the September 11, 1962, was very important. Pope John XXIII spoke of a good preparation and confirmed that nothing was yet fixed and final. He spoke that men and women want peace, desire love, and feel attracted by the Spirit. He talked about Christ as the light of the Church and the Church as the light of the Gentiles, of Lumen Christi, Ecclesia Christi and Lumen Gentium (Alberigo, Giuseppe. 1995. “Preparazione per quale concilio?”. 526).

Some biographical notes

Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens (1904-1996)

Suenens was Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium. His father, who owned a restaurant, died when Leon was 4 years old. His priest-uncle subsequently looked after Leon and his mother. Suenens studied with the Jesuits at the Gregorian in Rome. His mentor was Désirée Cardinal Mercier, whose liberal views had a decisive influence on Suenens. He taught Moral Theology, did pastoral work with the Belgian soldiers in Southern France and became vice-rector and rector of the Catholic University of Louvain. In 1962 he was made a cardinal (Leo Declerck. Suenens. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, 266. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger (1904-1991)

Léger was Archbishop of Montreal. The Jesuits dismissed him from their novitiate because of his warm emotional character. At the Catholic Institute of Paris he received a doctorate in Canon Law. In the 1930s, he trained priests in a seminary in Japan. Returning to Canada during World War II, he worked as Professor of Sociology in Montreal. He was a supporter of religious liberty, discussed open-mindedly the issue of birth control and insisted on the equality of conjugal love and procreation in marriage (Gilles Routhier. Léger. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, 166-168. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Achille Cardinal Liénart (1884-1973)

Liénart was bishop of Lille. He holds degrees from the Catholic University of Paris, from the Sorbonne and the Bible Institute in Rome. During World War I he served as a chaplain in the French army and in the 1920s he did pastoral work in his hometown Lille. In 1930 he was made a cardinal. After World War II he supported and defended the working priests in Rome, wrote against antisemitism and dialogued with Muslims (Albert Raffelt. Liénart. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, 173f. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Denis Hurley (1915-2004)

Hurley was born in Cape Town, his father was the lighthouse keeper on Robben Island. In 1931 Hurley joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and took degrees from the Angelicum and the Gregorian in Rome. In 1946 he was made Bishop of Natal, thus making him the world’s youngest bishop. In 1951 Natal was elevated to the Archdiocese of Durban. All his life he fought apartheid and criticized the post-conciliar developments like Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae on birth control, the maintenance of forced celibacy for priests, Roman liturgical centralism, and the lack of collegiality of the Pope with the bishops’ college and the synods. He was never made a cardinal (Michael Quisinsky. Hurley. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 138. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Maximos IV Sayegh (1878-1967)

Maximos IV Sayegh was Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1947 until his death. He outspokenly urged reconciliation between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. He was appointed Archbishop of Tyre in Lebanon in 1919 and in 1933 he was named Archbishop of Beirut. A fierce critic of Roman Centralism, his appointment as cardinal in 1965 was the subject of great controversy in Rome (Clemens Carl. Maximos IV Sayegh. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 188-190. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Franz Cardinal König (1905-2004)

König studied at the Gregorian University in Rome and at its Bible Institute Persian languages and religions of the Antiquity. During the Nazi occupation of Austria and World War II he was youth pastor at the Cathedral of Saint Pölten in Lower Austria. In 1948 he became Professor of Moral Theology at Salzburg University, in 1952 auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Saint Pölten and in 1956 Archbishop of Vienna. In 1958 he was made a cardinal. König asked Karl Rahner to accompany him to Rome as his theological expert for the Council. From 1965 to 1980, he was the first president of the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-believers. Resistance against the Nazi regime, pastoral concerns for the family and lay apostolate, effective efforts for reconciliation between the Socialist and the Conservative Party in Austria, his ability to maintain a dialogue with high-ranking persons from other religions and science gave him moral authority and made him a symbol of the Second Vatican Council in his native Austria (Neuhold. König. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 155-156. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Julius Cardinal Döpfner (1913-1976)

Döpfner studied at the Gregorian University in Rome. In 1939 he was ordained a priest and did pastoral work until he was consecrated a bishop in Würzburg, Germany, in 1948. From 1957 he served as bishop in Berlin. In 1958 he was made a cardinal and in 1961 Archbishop of Munich. After the first session of the Second Vatican Council he was a member of the new Coordinating Commission. At the first intersession he presented to John XXIII the so-called Döpfner Plan for better organization of the thematic work of the Council. From 1971-75 he supported with all his authority the Synod of Würzburg. At this the first and last synod in Germany lay, clerics and bishops discussed together in open discourse the realizations of the Second Vatican Council for the Catholic Church (Mokry. Döpfner. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 93-95. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Josef Cardinal Frings (1887-1978)

Frings was consecrated Archbishop of Cologne in 1942 and in 1946 he was made a cardinal. From 1945 to 1949 he was an advocate and a strong voice for the basic needs of the morally, politically and economically devastated German population toward the Allied Forces and encouraged reconstruction of the cities, civil and political life in Western Germany. In 1962 he made the only 35-year-old theologian Joseph Ratzinger his theological expert at the Council (Carl. Frings. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 110-11. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Bernard Cardinal Alfrink (1900-1987)

Alfrink studied at the Bible Institute of the Gregorian University in Rome and in Jerusalem. In 1945 he became Professor for Biblical and Hebrew Studies at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, Netherlands. In 1951 he was made auxiliary bishop and in 1955 Archbishop of Utrecht. In 1960 he was made a cardinal. His theological expert and adviser at the Second Vatican Council was the Dominical father Edward Schillebeeckx. He supported the Dutch Catechism, in 1966 the first post-Vatican II Catholic catechism and the Dutch Pastoral Council from 1966-70 that ultimately favored abolition of mandatory celibacy for Catholic priests. Alfrink was the subject of great criticism because of his desire for religious liberty and reform of the Catholic Church. Conservative Dutch Catholics and Rome succeeded in installing conservative bishops in the Netherlands at the beginning of 1970 (Ruh. Alfrink. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 36-37. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani (1890-1979)

Ottaviani, a baker’s son from Trastevere, was a jovial parish pastor. With 38 years he left teaching state church law and started a career in the Vatican curia. He works his way up from undersecretary in the congregation for extraordinary affairs to the State Secretariat, the most important department of the papal government, further to the Holy Office, the former Inquisition. In 1953 he was created cardinal and six years later he was actually running the Holy Office under the presidency of the pope. He was an influential member of the minority of the Second Vatican Council that vehemently opposed any reform. Pope John XXIII was well aware of Ottaviani’s opposition to his reform plans for a council. Therefore, he made his loyal Cardinal Secretary of State of the Roman Catholic Church, Domenico Tardini, (1888-1961) president of the pre-preparatory commission of the Council and the unknown Pericle Felici (1911-1982) secretary (Alberigo, Giuseppe. 1995b. “L’ annuncio del concilio. Dalle sicurezze dell’arroccamento al fascino della ricerca.” In Il cattolicesimo verso una nuova stagione. L`annuncio e la preparazione gennaio 1959 – settembre 1962. Vol. 1 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 19–70. 62. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

With the nomination of Tardini the Pope bypassed the conservative president of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office that conducted the Inquisition, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani (1890-1979) (ibid. 63). Domenico Tardini was born in Rome and like the later John XXIII studied at the Pontifical Roman Seminary. Tardini together with Giovanni Battista Montini (1897-1978), the later Paul VI, was the main assistant to Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958), Cardinal Secretary of State until 1939, when he became Pope Pius XII.

As president of the theological commission, Ottaviani opposed reform of the Holy Office, liturgical reform, critical exegesis, religious liberty, artificial family planning and much more. He was an aggressive defender of the schemes that were prepared by the Curia for the Second Vatican Council and lobbied his cause with insisting pressure on Pope Paul VI (Massimo Faggioli. Ottaviani. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 204. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder). Ottaviani’s preferred enemy was the Jesuit, Augustin Cardinal Bea. Ottaviani considered Bea to be a parvenu in the Curia and strongly opposed Bea’s views on the inspiration of the Scriptures, religious liberty and the relationship to the Jews (Komonchak, Joseph, 1995. “La lotta per il concilio durante la preparazione”. In Il cattolicesimo verso una nuova stagione. L`annuncio e la preparazione gennaio 1959 – settembre 1962. Vol. 1 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 177–380. 325. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino.

Augustin Cardinal Bea (1881-1968)

Bea entered with 19 years the Jesuit order in his homeland Germany. He became professor of bible sciences but was also a capable local superior and superior of a German Jesuit province. In 1924 he became professor at the Pontificial Bible Institute in Rome and from 1930 to 1949 he introduced as rector the method of critical exegesis at the Bible Institute, enforced the study of biblical archeology and oriental studies, and took up the challenge of faith by the epistemology of the sciences of man and history. Bea was not only a respected biblical scholar, a respected superior and rector, but also a trusted father in spiritual matters. From 1945 to 1958 he was the confessor of Pope Pius XII. In 1959 he was created cardinal and only in 1962 he was ordained bishop. In 1960 Pope John XXIII made him president of the new Secretariat for the promotion of Christian unity (Philippe J. Roy. Bea. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 48. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Unlike the carpenter’s son Cardinal Bea, Ottaviani did not succeed in becoming educated within the cultural horizon of the twentieth century and bible studies. What made Bea an open-minded champion of ecumenism, why did he culture a Protestant-Catholic understanding as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worked for the unity of all women and men who are touched by the mystery of God? I do not know. Study of the biblical texts, an intimate relation to Go’d as the fountain of personal existence and the international intellectual profile of the Jesuit education might be elements of Bea’s evolution from a carpenter’s son to favored counsellor of Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. Ottaviani was too frightened and insecure in his personal identity as a Christian to enter discussions and discourses with theologians of different views. Ottaviani adhered to Canon Law as the principle of order and organization of the Church and did not share the insight that even norms are but the socially fixed expressions of values. Ottaviani had more influence at the Curia than Bea. Beas was travelling outside Rome to meet with Protestant, Jewish and Catholic organizations. The ecumenical movement was organized at the level of world congresses, conferences, and international meetings. The same is the case for the lay apostolate. Bea lacked the organizational and professional infrastructure to coordinate his work in and outside Rome, to access information at the administrative level of the Roman Curia and to participate in her administrative procedures. This situation changed, when on October 22, 1962, it was announced in the aula of the Council that John XXIII had elevated the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity to a commission (ibid. 64). With this eleventh commission, Cardinal Bea acquired an institutional position at the Council (Riccardi, Andrea. 1996. “La tumultuosa apertura dei lavori.” In La formazione della coscienza conciliare. Il primo period e la prima intersessione ottobre 1962 – settembre 1963. Vol. 2 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 21–86. 77. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

Ernesto Cardinal Ruffini (1888-1967)

Ruffini was born in northern Italy in the province of Mantua. He studied at the Angelicum and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and subsequently pursued a teaching career at the Lateran University and the Pontifical Urban University. In 1945 he was named Archbishop of Palermo and made a cardinal in 1946. He was member of the central preparatory commission of the Second Vatican Council and member of the Presidency of the Council. From the beginning of the Council he was member of the conservative minority of the Council that later organized as Coetus Internationalis Patrum (Philippe J. Roy. Ruffini. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 234f. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Marcel-François Lefebvre (1905-1991)

Marcel-François Lefebvre’s father was a factory owner, outspoken monarchist and a devout Catholic, who brought his children to daily mass. In World War I he ran a spy ring for British Intelligence and as a member of the French Resistance against the Nazis he died in the Nazi concentration camp in Sonnenburg in 1944. At the insistence of his father Lefebvre, who wanted to become a priest, attended the French seminary in Rome. In 1931 he was sent to Gabon as a missionary of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost, the Spiritans. In 1948 he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Dakar and in 1955 Archbishop of Dakar. In 1970 he founded the Society of Saint Pius X, because he rejected major developments and reforms instituted by the Second Vatican Council and also maintained the traditional Tridentine Mass in Latin. In 1988, contrary to the orders of Pope John Paul II, he consecrated four bishops. The split of the Society of Saint Pius X with Rome still exists (Philippe J. Roy. Lefebvre. (Philippe J. Roy. Ruffini. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 164f. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Giuseppe Cardinal Siri (1906-1989)

Siri was born in Genoa, received a doctorate from the Gregorian in Rome, and from 1930 to 1946 was a professor at the Great Seminary of Genoa. In 1944 he was consecrated auxiliary bishop and in 1946 Archbishop of Genoa. In 1953 he was made a cardinal and from 1959 to 1965 he was the first president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. The Irish Dominican Cardinal Michael Browne was from 1910 to 1919 novice master of his order in Ireland and then professor at the Angelicum, the Dominican university in Rome. From 1955 to 1962 he was Master General of the Dominican Order. In 1962 he was made a cardinal and consecrated as a bishop. (Philippe J. Roy. Siri. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 255f. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).

Pericle Cardinal Felici (1911-1982)

Felici was ordained priest at the age of 22 years and one year later he finished his doctoral thesis in theology on Sigmund Freud. Four years later he was awarded a doctorate in Canon Law, appointed rector of the Pontifical Roman Seminary, and in 1943 Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. Since 1947 Felici had been an auditor of the Roman Rota, the highest court of the Roman Catholic Church. And was unknown to the Vatican establishment, when in 1959 Pope John XXIII made him secretary of the pre-preparatory commission for the upcoming council. 1960 he got the title of archbishop of Samosata, a diocese that for centuries had ceased to exist. He became secretary of the central preparatory commission for the council, then secretary of the central commission and secretary of the council, as well as secretary of the central post conciliar commission. 1967 he was created cardinal. He was a main architect of the 1983 Canon Law and in 1977 was made prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority of the Roman Catholic Church after the pope. Felici was a political secretary of the Council, that is he moderated the relations between the Council, the pope, and the Roman Curia. In decisive moments of the Second Vatican Council – when for example encouraging Paul VI to insist on the primacy of the pope over the bishops - he acted in the interest of the Roman Curia and the minority of the Council (Massimo Faggioli. In Michael Quisinsky and Peter Walter Quisinky ed. 2013. Personenlexikon zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. 103f. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder).