Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Felina di Reggio Emilia, Sergio Pignedoli entered the Seminary of Reggio Emilia, later furthering his studies at the Catholic University of Milan and the Pontifical Lateran Athenueum and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning doctorates in letters, canon law and ecclesiastical history. Ordained priest on April 1, 1933 in Rome, he was soon appointed vice-rector of the seminary of Reggio Emilia. Chaplain of the Catholic University of Milan and military chaplain during the Second World War, Pignedoli went on the serve as a staff member of the Secretariat of State, assistant general chaplain of the Italian Catholic Action and general chaplain of the Italian Boy Scouts between 1943 and 1950. Named Privy Chamberlain of His Holiness on May 5, 1945, Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on September 5, 1949 and secretary of the Central Committee of the 1950 Holy Year, Pope Pius XII elected him archbishop of the titular see of Iconio on his appointment as apostolic nuncio in Bolivia on December 22, 1950. Receiving his episcopal consecration on February 11 of the following at at the Major Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome from Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza OCD., he was appointed apostolic nuncio in Venezuela on October 19, 1954. Named auxiliary to Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, on April 15, 1955 he was again posted in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, being named apostolic delegate in Western and Central Africa with residence in Lagos on September 23, 1960. Transferred to the apostolic delegation of Canada on June 1, 1964, he served as president of the Extraordinary Conference of Vietnam's Episcopate prior to his appointment as secretary of Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on June 10, 1967. Created cardinal deacon by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of March 5, 1973 with the deaconry of San Giorgio in Velabro, the named Pontiff appointed him president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians on the following day. Cardinal Protodeacon as of June 30, 1979, the Cardinal passed away unexpectedly while in Reggio Emilia, after suffering from a blood clot of the lungs, on June 15 of the following year at 1 am., a few hours after celebrating mass on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary from the priesthood ordination of one of his closest friends, Fr. Carlo Varischi, a Capuchin Friar. His funeral mass was celebrated on the following Tuesday, June 17 in the cathedral of Reggio Emilia, presided by Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the Pope's representative, with the participation among others of four other Cardinals: Agnelo Rossi, Michele Pellegrino, Giovanni Colombo and Antonio Poma. Among those present at the mass were Bishop Renato Spallanzani of Palestrina, a long time friend and one time seminary condisciple, numerous military and civil authorities and a delegation of handicapped which traveled all the way from Milan, headed by Fratel Ettore Boschini, a renowned Camillian. Originally interred beside the parish church of Felina di Castelnuovo nè Monti inside a simple vault together his parents, at a later date his remains were transferred to the named church itself and re-buried in the chapel which once housed the baptismal font where he himself was baptized three days after his birth.