Background
Willem van Rossum was born in Zwolle, Netherlands, to January and Hendrika (née Veldwillems) van Rossum.
cardinal priest theologian university professor
Willem van Rossum was born in Zwolle, Netherlands, to January and Hendrika (née Veldwillems) van Rossum.
He served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1911. He was ordained a priest in Wittem on October 17, 1879. He then taught Latin and rhetoric in Roermond, and was a professor of dogmatic theology at the Scholasticate of Wittem from 1883 to 1892.
He became the Scholasticate"s prefect of studies in 1886 and its rector in 1893.
He also became a counselor to the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law on April 15, 1904. He served as general consultor of the Redemptorists from 1909 to 1911.
In 1914, he became president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. In 1915, he was named head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the three tribunals of the Roman Curia and was also raised to the rank of Cardinal Priest, with the titular church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
He was appointed titular bishop of Caesarea in Mauretania and Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples.
He participated in the papal conclaves that elected Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XI.