Antonio Samore

Antonio Samoré (Bardi, December 4, 1905 - Rome, February 3, 1983), cardinal of the Catholic Church since 1967, papal representative in mediating the Beagle Conflict over membership of the islands and marine territories south of the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina in 1978, which concluded in the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1984.

Childhood and youth

Antonio Samorè (or Samore) was born in Bardi, Province of Parma, diocese of Piacenza, Italy. He completed his religious education at the Piacenza seminary and at the Lateran Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome.

Religious life

He was ordained a priest on June 10, 1928 in Piacenza and carried out his pastoral work in the same diocese until 1932. He served as attaché and secretary of the nunciature in Lithuania between 1932 and 1936, and as secretary of the nunciature in Switzerland in 1938.

Samorè was a member of the staff of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, between 1938 and 1947 and Counselor of the apostolic delegation in the United States between 1947 and 1950.

Episcopacy

A search of Cardinal Samoré in Providencia, Santiago de Chile, the work of Joaquín Mirauda.

He was elected Titular Archbishop of Tirnovo and appointed Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia on January 30, 1950, being consecrated on April 16 of the same year in Rome by Cardinal Clemente Micara, Bishop of Velletri and Vicar General of Rome.

He held the position of secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs from February 7, 1953. On May 17, 1959, Pope John XXIII appointed him a member of the preparatory commission for the Second Vatican Council where he also participated between 1962 and 1965.

Cardinal

Samoré was created a cardinal priest on June 26, 1967, receiving the red cap and title to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. In 1967 he was elected President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He attended the first ordinary assembly of the World Synod of Bishops, in Vatican City, between September 29 and October 29, 1967.

Designated Prefect of the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments since November 1, 1968, he attended the first extraordinary assembly of the World Synod of Bishops held in Vatican City in 1969 and the second assembly of the same synod, in 1971. He resigned from the prefecture of the congregation, taking over as librarian and archivist of the Catholic Church on January 25, 1974. He was appointed titular bishop of the suburban see of Sabina and Poggio Mirteto on December 12, 1974, with which he became cardinal bishop

Cardinal Samoré mediation in the conflict between Chile and Argentina

He was appointed special papal representative to Argentina and Chile for the peaceful resolution of the border conflict between the two on December 24, 1978. The papal mediation carried out by Cardinal Samorè prevented an imminent war between two eminently Catholic countries governed by military dictatorships. His action directed Chile and Argentina towards the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Chile and Argentina signed in 1984 before the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Agostino Casaroli.

On the eve of Christmas 1978, he pronounced the well-remembered phrase: "I see a little light of hope at the end of the tunnel". From that moment on, the peace negotiations concluded happily with the peace and friendship proposal presented by Pope John Paul II in December 1980, accepted by both nations.

Last years of life

Honors given in front of the monument to Cardinal Antonio Samoré in Santiago de Chile.

Cardinal Antonio Samorè could not see the concretion of the treaty as he died before it was signed.

He died of a heart attack on February 3, 1983 in Rome, being buried in the church of the Carmelite Monastery in Vetralla, near the Italian city of Viterbo, along with Domenico Tardini.

In his honor, the second most important pass between Chile and Argentina was renamed Cardenal Samoré International Pass (formerly Puyehue Pass).