Commemoration of the Academicians Deceased from 1992 to 1994. by Pontificia Academia Scientiarum - 1994

Vatican City:: Ex AEdibus Academicis, 1994., 1994. Series: Commentarii, Vol. III, No. 35, Plenary Session, October 25-29, 1994. 8vo. 64 pp. Original blue printed wrappers. Copy of TLS from Renato Dardozzi (1 p., 4/24/96) to "Excellency" offering him the book laid-in. Very good. ISBN: 8877610565 This work contains commemorations for Jerome Lejeune (1926-1994), William Wilson Morgan (1906-1994), Severo Ochoa (1905-1993), Jan Hendrik Oort (1900-1992), Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (1897-1994), and Janos Szentagothai (1912-1994). Note: Renato Dardozzi (1922-2003) was an Italian electronic engineer who worked the state telecommunications company of Vatican State. At the age of 52, he became ordained as a priest, and soon became chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. For twenty years, he was one of the very few directors of the Secretary of State of the Holy See, the oldest and most important department of the Roman Curia, first with the Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli then with his successor Angelo Sodano. Dardozzi is perhaps most famous for being a whistleblower on unscrupulous financial activities of the Church, smuggling over 4,000 internal documents of the Vatican's central bank, Institute for the Works of Religion to the press. "It is interesting to note that Dardozzi's motive for turning whistleblower was not unalloyed disapproval of the IOR's unethical conduct. His decision to smuggle his secret archive out of the Vatican was motivated, at least in part, by anger at the institute's refusal to pay him a commission on the sale of a valuable real estate property near Florence. The unusual monsignor wanted to leave the money to his adoptive daughter, whose health condition required expensive hospital treatment. Whatever the reason, Dardozzi's archive offers an unprecedented glimpse of the inner workings of one of the world's most secretive and unaccountable financial institutions" (Willan). "Excellency" is the formal way to address a bishop of the Catholic Church. Willan, Philip, "[Review of:] How the Vatican Sold Its Soul," The Guardian, 6/3/2009, available on-line.