Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Fossarmato, Ernesto Civardi entered seminary in Pavia, later furthering his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, from where he earned his doctorate in canon law, and later at the Sacred Roma Rota, in the legal section of the Vatican City, graduating as a rotal lawyer. Ordained priest on June 29, 1930 in Pavia, upon finishing his studies he was named vice-rector of the Lombardian Seminary of Rome in 1932. Staff member of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, he performed pastoral ministry in the diocese of Rome between 1934 and 1953. Named domestic prelate of His Holiness with the title of Monsignor on July 15, 1950, Civardi served as substitute of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation from 1953 till 1965, and later as its undersecretary between 1965 and 1967. Commissary of the Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments and Justice Promoter of the Vatican City Tribunal between 1953 and 1967, he was named referendary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature on November 18, 1958, and later voting prelate on October 10, 1962. Expert at the Second Vatican Council, he served as counsellor of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith from 1965 until 1967, when on May 17, he was named secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation. Aged sixty, he was elected archbishop of the titular see of Sardica by Pope Paul VI receiving his episcopal consecration on July 16, 1967 inside the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica, from the named Pope. Present at the ceremony was amongst others, Civardi's elder brother, Monsignor Luigi (1886-1971), bishop of the titular see of Tespia and canon of the chapter of the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica. Appointed secretary of the Sacred College of Cardinals, he served the latter office during the conclaves of August and October 1978 that elected the late Popes John Paul I and John Paul II to the Papacy. At the age of seventy two, Civardi was created cardinal deacon by Pope John Paul II in his first consistory of June 30, 1979, receiving the deaconry of San Teodoro. A self proclaimed "Man of the Curia", the Cardinal passed away on November 28, 1989 in Rome aged eighty three, and following a funeral mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II at the altar of the chair of St. Peter he was interred inside the chapel of the Confraternità dei Lombardi at the Campo Verano Cemetery of Rome.