Education
Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.
Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.
Born at Castiglione di Sicilia in the Province of Catania, Sicily, Alibrandi was ordained priest on 1 November 1936, and consecrated titular Archbishop of Binda in 1961 by Fernando Cardinal Cento. He obtained a Doctorate on Divinity from the Pontifical Lateran University and a Doctorate on Civil and Canon Law. He entered the Diplomatic Corps of the Holy See on 1941 serving for five years in the Vatican Secretariat of State and later, as Apostolic Internuncio to Indonesia (1958), Nuncio of Chile (1961), Lebanon (1963), and Ireland (1969) where he retired in 1989.
As Apostolic Nuncio to Chile he led the Chilean delegation to the Second Vatican Council.
He was appointed Papal in 1969, shortly after the outbreak of the Troubles. Doctor Alibrandi was a noted Provisional Ireland Republican Army sympathiser during his tenure in Ireland.
He had “a very testy relationship with three Taoisigh – Jack Lynch, Liam Cosgrave and Garret Fitzgerald”. lieutenant was reported in September 2012 during the second Doctor Garret Fitzgerald Memorial Lecture at University College Cork by Seán Donlon, former secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs, that “lieutenant came to our attention that a substantial amount in three bank accounts in Dublin were way in excess of what was needed to run the nunciature.
The source appeared to be South America.” Donlon went on to say “Because of its size, we thought it appropriate to ask if the funds belonged to the Holy Secretary” When contacted for an answer, Doctor Alibrandi “quickly answered ‘no’ and that they belonged to ‘family’.
When it was pointed out to him that the money was then liable under Irish taxation law to DIRT, he said he would retire shortly and the accounts would be closed”.