Cesare Zacchi

On 1 June 1975, he was named president of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. He held that post until the appointment of his successor, Justin Francis Rigali, on 8 June 1985.

On 24 May 1974, Pope Paul raised his rank to titular archbishop of Maura and appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Cuba; Zacchi presented his credentials to Cuban Foreign Minister Raúl Roa on 20 December 1974.

On 16 September 1967, Pope Paul VI appointed him titular bishop of Zella. He received his episcopal consecration in Havana on 12 December 1967 from Archbishop Emanuele Clarizio, and Fidel Castro attended the reception following the ceremony.

He worked in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Austria, Yugoslavia, Colombia, and Cuba. He had been a councilor in Cuba since 1969 when the nuncio there, Luigi Centoz, was appointed to a post in Rome on 5 July 1962. With Zacchi's appointment as interim charge d'affaires of the Nunciature to Cuba, the Vatican hoped to establish a modus vivendi under the Castro regime. Zacchi said: "My principal task is to reduce the distrust between the Cuban clergy and the government."

To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1948.

Cesare Zacchi (28 November 1914 – 22 August 1991) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He represented the Church and the Holy See in Cuba from 1967 to 1974 and then headed the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains the Vatican's diplomats, from 1975 to 1985.

Cesare Zacchi was born on 28 November 1914 in Ortignano Raggiolo, Italy. He was ordained a priest on 17 October 1937.