Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Casalnuovo Monterotaro, Pietro Parente entered seminary in Benevento, later pursuing his studies in Rome at the Pio Seminario Romano, the Ennio Quirino Visconti Lyceum, the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum San Apollinare and the Pontifical Lateran Athenaeum. Ordained priest there in March 1916, that same year he was named rector of the archdiocesan seminary of Naples, which city he had previously resided in while frequenting the local State University. Ten years later he joined the teaching faculty of the Pontifical Lateran University and successively served as rector of the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum De Propaganda Fide between 1934 and 1938. Founding the Faculty of Theology and Canon Law in Naples, he was named canon of the chapter of St. Peter's Patriarchal Vatican Basilica in 1953. Considered as one of the Catholic Church's leading theologians, Parente was appointed archbishop of Perugia by Pope Pius XII, receiving his episcopal consecration on October 23, 1955 at the named Vatican Basilica. Appointed assessor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office on October 23, 1959, with the titular archbishopric see of Tolemaide di Tebaide, he was named secretary of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1965. Pope Paul VI created him cardinal priest in the consistory of June 26, 1967, with the title of San Lorenzo in Lucina. Spending his remaining years at the Vatican City, he passed away there in his apartment, being by that time, the oldest member of the Sacred College of Cardinals. His body was transferred to his native Casalnuovo Monterotaro and interred in the shrine of the Madonna della Rocca, beside which he received his first education in a school then situated adjacent to the church.