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Fr. Leopoldo Angelo Baldassare Santanchè of Acquasanta, O.F.M.
antanchè was the second apostolic vicar of Santo Domingo, serving from 1870 to 1874 and simultane-
ously exercising duties as apostolic delegate to Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Venezuela. He was born
in Acquasanta Terme in the province of Ascoli Piceno, Italy on October 3, 1818 and was a member
of the congregation of the reformed Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis. He was a professor of phi-
losophy and theology in Pesaro and was later assigned to his order’s missions in Constantinople. He had been
in Hispaniola for three years, although only to monitor the state of the Church, and was hiding away in a cell
in the old Convento de las Mercedes. His true intentions were soon acknowledged, and he was appointed
apostolic vicar on November 29, 1870. He was ordained as bishop in Curaçao on August 24, 1871, and in Sep-
tember of that year, he returned to Santo Domingo to take office. He visited nearly the entire Archdiocese
of Santo Domingo, performing the Catholic sacrament of confirmation, as stated in the parish books. He did
not disregard the Conciliar Seminary and, as a result of cultural influences, he criticized Freemasonry, even
within the clergy, making him rather unpopular. Perhaps his boldest and most overt demonstration of author-
ity, however, was the radical suppression of the Carmelite Order and his refusal to meet with the head of this
order on March 23, 1872.
Upon leaving Santo Domingo on April 3, 1876, he visited Pope Pius IX in Rome and was appointed bish-
op of the Italian Diocese of Fabriano Matelica but still retained the title of archbishop. Seven years later, at
sixty-five years of age, and having served twelve as bishop, he died in San Venanzio Cathedral in Fabriano on
February 10, 1883.
Fr. Rocco Cocchia of Cesinali, O.F.M.Cap.
Cocchia, who served as apostolic delegate to Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Venezuela, was born in Cesinali,
Italy, in the Diocese of Avellino on April 30, 1830. At a young age, he entered the Salerno monastery of the
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He was a professor of literature at the Salerno and Amalfi seminaries in Cam-
pania and the author of an account of the Capuchin friars. He was also an adviser to the First Vatican Council,
provincial superior of the region of Lucania, and attorney general of the Capuchin missions. Pope Pius IX ap-
pointed him both delegate and apostolic vicar of Santo Domingo in 1874. He was then immediately appointed
titular bishop of the Diocese of Oropus on July 26, 1874, and was ordained in Rome by Cardinal Monaco La
Valletta. He arrived in Santo Domingo on September 19 of that same year, facing opposition from both the
CHAPTER 8
Italian Clergy and the Catholic Church:
Biographical Summaries
By José Luis Sáez, S.J.
Jesuit Priest
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