Roman Catholic Cardinal. Genoa born Giuseppe Siri received his education at the local minor and major seminaries, being later sent to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he earned a doctorate in theology. Ordained priest in September 1928 in his native Genoa, he was soon named chaplain of the Santa Zita parish and of the Opera Giosuè Signore. Lecturing dogmatic and fundamental theology at the archiepiscopal seminary of Genoa, Siri was a renowned preacher. Professor of religion at the lyceums D'Oria and Mazzini and prosynodal examiner at the archiepiscopal curia, he was named rector of the Collegio Teologico San Tommaso d'Aquino in 1937. Elected auxiliary for the archdiocese of Genoa by Pope Pius XII, he received his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Liviade on May 7, 1944. Named pro-vicar general of the archdiocese on the following September 8, 1944, he was promoted archbishop of the metropolitan see on May 14, 1946, following the death of Cardinal Pietro Boetto. Pope Pius XII created him cardinal priest in the consistory of January 12, 1953, with the title of Santa Maria della Vittoria. A staunch conservative, Siri was considered as the leading traditionalist candidate in the papal conclaves of 1958, 1963 and of August and October 1978. Word has it that in that of 1958, he was elected Pope on the very first day, assuming the name of Gregory XVII, a theory never credited nor by historians nor by the various biographers of Siri, with the Cardinal himself remaining faithful to the various popes who followed one another over the years and always in full communion with Rome. Appointed president of the Italian Apostolate of the Sea in 1955 and later, its director general, he was named bailiff grand cross of honor and devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Pope John XXIII appointed him as the first president of the Italian Episcopal Conference on October 12, 1959, a post which he occupied until 1965. As Papal legate, he celebrated the wedding ceremony of King Badouin I of Belgium and Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón in Brussels in December 1960, being decorated in return with the grand cross of the Order of Leopold. Decorated with the grand cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in May 1963, he became cardinal protoprete on September 18, 1982. Bailiff grand cross of justice of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George of the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies, he became the first archbishop of Genoa-Bobbio when the two sees were united together on September 30, 1986. Retiring from the pastoral government of his see in July 1987, Siri spent his last years at Villa Campostano in Albaro, where he passed away due to a sudden deterioration of his cardio-vascular condition.