London – July 2003. His Eminence Mario Francesco, Cardinal Pompedda, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura, President of the Court of Cassation of the Vatican City State and Ecclesiastical Counsellor of Pope John Paul II to the Order, will pay a visit to London as a guest of the Delegation from 12-16 November 2003. This will be the visit ever visit by a Cardinal Grand Prior of the Order to the British and Irish Delegation. His Eminence will preside over the 2003 investiture of new knights and dames at Westminster and undertake a series of other church and official engagements on behalf of the Delegation. Here follows a biography of His Eminence:
Cardinal Pompedda was born on 18 April in 1929, Ozieri, Sardinia , Italy . Education . Archiepiscopal Seminary of Sassari, Sassari; Regional Seminary of Cagliari, Cagliari (philosophy); Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome (doctorate in theology); Pontifical Biblical Institute (licentiate in sacred scripture); Pontifical Lateran University, Rome (doctorate in “in utroque iure”); “Studium” of the Sacred Roman Rota, Rome (lawyer “rotale”).
Priesthood . Ordained, 23 December 1951, Rome . Pastoral work for 30 years in the Roman parish of “Nostra Signora di Guadalupe a Monte Mario”. Ecclesiastical Counsellor of the Roman Union of Catholic Jurists. Joined the Tribunal of the Sacred Roman Rota, 1955; defender of the matrimonial bond; prelate auditor 8 May 1969; dean, 11 September 1993. President of the Apellate Court of the State of Vatican City , November 1993. Awarded honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Canon Law, Catholic Institute of Paris , October 1995. Ecclesiastical Counsellor of the International Union of Catholic Jurists. For more than 20 years was a faculty member of the “Studio Rotale”; also taught at the Faculty of Canon Law, Pontifical Gregorian University and at the Roman Athenaeum of the “Santa Croce”.
Episcopate . Elected titular archbishop of Bisarcio, 29 November 1997. Consecrated, 6 January 1998, Vatican City , by Pope John Paul II. Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura and President of the Cassation Court of the State of Vatican City , 16 November 1999. President of the Commission for the Advocates ad quinquennium , 7 March 2000.
Cardinalate . Created cardinal deacon, 21 February 2001; received the red biretta and the deaconry of Annunciazione della B.V.M. a Via Ardeatina, 21 February 21, 2001. Attended X Ordinary Assembly of World Synod of Bishops, Vatican City , 30 September – 27 October 2001; President of the Commission for the Controversies. Special papal envoy to the celebrations of the 7th centennial of the death of Saint-Yves, patron of the jurists, Tréguier, France, 16-18 May 2003.