Roman Catholic Archbishop. A native of Castellazzo Bormida, Monsignor Girolamo Prigione was ordained priest for the diocese of Alessandria at the early age of twenty two on May 18, 1944. Furthering his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Lateran University, earning degrees in philosophy and canon law, his first assignment was that of vice-parish priest of Castelceriolo. Sent to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, he entered diplomatic service in the Roman Curia, obtaining in the meantime a degree in letters from the La Sapienza University of Rome. Named first secretary to the apostolic nuncio in Italy in 1951 serving under future cardinals Francesco Borgongini Duca and Giuseppe Fietta, he served the same office in the nunciature of Great Britain from 1957 until 1960 under Msgr. Gerald Patrick Aloysius O'Hara and in the apostolic delegation of the United States between 1960 and 1963, then led by future cardinal Luigi Raimondi. Posted to the nunciature of Vienna, Austria, serving as church representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), and delegate for the Holy See to various international representations, Pope Paul VI appointed him apostolic nuncio in Guatemala and El Salvador at forty six years of age on August 27, 1968, receiving his episcopal consecration with the titular archbishopric see of Lauriacum on November 24 that year from Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani. During his tenure in El Salvador it was he who consecrated to the episcopate future blessed Msgr. Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez to the episcopate as auxiliary for San Salvador. Named apostolic delegate in Ghana and Nigeria on October 2, 1973, he was eventually named pro-nuncio for the latter country on April 28, 1976. Transferred to Mexico as apostolic delegate on February 7, 1978, his long tenure, lasting nineteen years - quite unusual for the post of a Holy See representative - oversaw the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Vatican as well as major changes in the Mexican Constitution of 1917 which had stringent anticlerical articles. His long stay however was the subject of controversy amidst hierarchy and laymen alike. An opponent of the liberation theology, reasserting papal primacy through the church in Mexico, some of his disputes include the closing of the churches in the archdiocese of Chihuahua on July 20, 1986 after its ordinary, Archbishop Adalberto Almeida y Merino denounced electoral fraud in the gubernatorial elections. Also known to have held meetings with the Arellano Félix brothers who led the the Cártel de Tijuana criminal organization, the assassination of Cardinal Jesus Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara at the Guadalajara International Airport along with six other people while on his way to pick Archbishop Prigione himself, further shadowed his position when the said brothers were charged with having conspired to assassinate the cardinal. In the meantime, both Protestant and Catholic churchmen publicly called for the expulsion of Girolamo Prigione from Mexico, including Cardinal Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada of Mexico City who in a letter addressed to Pope John Paul II, dated December 15, 1993, denounced him as a man of "arrogant and haughty attitudes" as well as of "commitments" with "power groups and money "that kept him away from his role as a diplomatic representative of the Pope". In spite of all this, the Pontiff did not relieve Prigione from his duties. Eventually retiring at the canonical age of seventy five years on April 2, 1997, having visited by that time numerous dioceses, parishes and churches all over Mexico, he consecrated in all fifty three prelates to the episcopate in the countries he was posted in. While the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Vatican made him become the first apostolic nuncio in the country - a credit well acknowledged for, considered to be the key player in the change in attitude and in action of the Mexican state - his ties with the Arellano brothers shattered his reputation in the eyes of many, especially for being considered to have sparked a new wave of controversy in the sensitive relationship between the traditionally anticlerical Mexican government and the Catholic Church. Also noted by some as one of the characters who covered the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Prigione spent his last years in his native Castellazzo Bormida, active till the end in the activities of the local diocese and readily accessible to various Mexican journalists. Consultor of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, passing away a few months short of his ninety-fifth birthday at the Orchidea residence for elderly of via Don Giovanni Rizzanti in Alessandria, the news of his death went almost unnoticed in Italy but made headlines all over Mexico. His funeral Mass was held at the parish church of Santa Maria della Corte of Castellazzo Bormida followed by interment in the local cemetery.