Camillo Mazzella

His Eminence Camillo Mazzella S.J.
Prefect of the Congregation for Rites
File:Cardinal Camillus Mazzella.png
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Appointed	15 June 1897
Term ended	26 March 1900
Predecessor	Gaetano Aloisi Masella
Successor	Domenico Ferrata
Other post	Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina (1897-1900)
Previous posts	Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Andriano al Foro (1886-96) Prefect of the Congregation of the Index (1889-93) Prefect of the Congregation for Studies (1893-97) Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Traspontina (1896-97)
Orders
Ordination	8 September 1855 by Domenico Carafa della Spina di Traetto
Consecration	8 May 1897 by Lucido Maria Parocchi
Created cardinal	7 June 1886 by Pope Leo XIII
Rank	Cardinal-Deacon (1886-96) Cardinal-Priest (1896-97) Cardinal-Bishop (1897-1900)
Personal details
Born	Camillo Mazzella 10 February 1833 Vitulano, near Benevento, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Died	26 March 1900 (aged 67) Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Buried	Campo Verano
Parents	Muzio Mazzella Eugenia Marcarelli

Camillo Mazzella (10 February 1833 – 26 March 1900) was an Italian Jesuit theologian and cardinal.

Biography

Mazzella was born at Vitulano, near Benevento. He and his siblings were first tutored at home. Three of his brothers entered religious life. His twin brother, Ernesto, later became Archbishop of Bari.

Mazzella entered the ecclesiastical seminary of Benevento when about eleven years of age, completed his classical, philosophical, and theological studies before his twenty-fourth year, and was ordained priest in September 1855, a dispensation as he was under canonical age having been granted by Pope Pius IX.

For two years after his ordination he remained at Vitulano, attending to the duties of canon in the parish church, a position he held from his family. Resigning this office he entered the Society of Jesus, 4 September 1857. After spending a year in the novitiate, he was sent to teach philosophy first, at the Seminary of Andria, in Apulia and then at the College of Cosenza, in Calabria.

When the Jesuits were expelled from Naples in 1860, he went to teach theology at Fourvières (Lyon, France), and in 1867 at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. In 1869, he was the founder and one of the first professors at Woodstock theological college, Maryland, where he was Prefect of Studies. In 1875, he served a Visitor to the Jesuit Mission in New Mexico. Mazzella became a naturalized American citizen.

In 1878, he was called to Rome to teach at the Gregorian University, and later became president of the Academy of Saint Thomas. He was very involved with Pope Leo XIII's promotion of Thomistic Philosophy. In June 1886 he was named cardinal-deacon of Sant'Adriano al Foro. Even as a cardinal, Mazzella maintained his identity as a Jesuit, spending his summers at the novitiate in Naples.

On 1897, he was made Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina. Mazzella served at various times as prefect of a number of Curial Congregations, and as Cardinal-Protector of several religious institutes. Mazzella was conservative and an Ultramontanist and likely contributed to the drafting of Testem benevolentiae nostrae, Pope Leo's 1899 letter to the cardinal James Gibbons cautioning him about the dangers of Americanism. He was likewise opposed to Darwin's theory of evolution.

He died in Rome and was buried in the chapel of the Society of Jesus in Campo Verano cemetery.

Works

• De gratia Christi (1874).
• De Deo creante (1880).
• De Religione et Ecclesia (1880). (6th edn., 1905, on Google Books.)

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Camillo Mazzella — Theologian and cardinal, born at Vitulano, 10 Feb., 1833; d. at Rome, 26 March, 1900. He entered the ecclesiastical seminary of Benevento when about eleven years of age, completed his classical, philosophical, and theological studies before his twenty-fourth year, and was ordained priest in Sept., 1855, a dispensation for defect of canonical age having been granted by Pius IX. For two years after his ordination he remained at Vitulano, attending to the duties of canon in the parish church, a position he held from his family. Resigning this office he entered the Society of Jesus, 4 Sept., 1857. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from Italy in 1860 he was sent to Fourvières, where after reviewing his theology for a year and making a public defense "de universa theologia", he taught dogmatic theology for three years, and moral theology for two. In the early autumn of 1867 he came to America and taught theology for two years to the members of the Society of Jesus at Georgetown University, Washington. On the opening of Woodstock College, Maryland, he was appointed prefect of studies and professor of dogmatic theology. While there he published four volumes: "De Religione et Ecclesia", "De Deo Creante", "De Gratia Christi", and "De virtutibus infusis", which went through several editions. In October, 1878, he was called to Rome by Leo XIII to fill the chair of theology at the Gregorian University left vacant by Father Franzeline's elevation to the cardinalate, and shortly afterwards, on the retirement of Father Kleutgen, was made prefect of studies. On 7 June, 1886, Leo XIII created Father Mazella a cardinal deacon. Ten years later he became cardinal priest. Not quite a year afterwards (18 April, 1897), at the express wish of the pope, he became cardinal bishop of Palestrina, to the government of which he applied himself with untiring energy. He was the first Jesuit on whom was bestowed the dignity of cardinal bishop. As cardinal he took an active part in the deliberations of a number of Congregations, was for several years the president of the Academy of St. Thomas, and, at various times, prefect of the Congregations of the Index, of Studies, and of Rites.

External links

• On God the Creator/De Deo Creatore in English and Latin