Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo, Archbishop emeritus of Palermo (Italy), was born on 23 September 1918 in Sicily. He entered the Pontifical Major Roman Seminary in 1936 and was ordained priest in Rome on 12 April 1941.

In 1942 he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and attended Pontifical Lateran University, obtaining a doctorate in utroque iure.

In 1947 he entered the diplomatic service of the Secretariat of State, and was assigned to the section of extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs. From 1959 to 1965 he was professor of ecclesiastical diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and professor of law at the Lateran University. At the same time, he exercised his priestly ministry at the parishes of San Giovanni Battista de’ Rossi and Santa Lucia in Rome.

On 7 December 1965 he was named titular archbishop of Miletus, and was appointed pro-nuncio apostolic in Indonesia. He received episcopal ordination on 16 January 1966. In 1969 he was recalled to Rome, and was appointed president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, an office which he held until he was named Archbishop of Palermo on 17 October 1970.

Archbishop emeritus of Palermo, 4 April 1996.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of 5 March 1973, of the Title of S. Maria Odigitria dei Siciliani (St. Mary Odigitria of the Sicilians), deaconry elevated pro illa vice to presbyteral title.

Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo died on 10 December 2006.