Cardinal Poma; Anti-Communist Church Leader

Cardinal Antonio Poma, a leader of the Italian Catholic Church during a decade of upheaval over abortion and divorce, died of heart problems Tuesday. He was 75.

A native of Villanterio in the northern Italian province of Pavia, Poma was ordained to the priesthood in 1933. He was named bishop of Mantua in 1954 and archbishop of the left-leaning city of Bologna in 1968. In April, 1969, Pope Paul VI made Poma a cardinal in the consistory, the papal senate.

Poma took a tough line with Italy’s Communists and suggested that Catholics who ran on Communist tickets in June, 1976, elections should be excommunicated. But Poma was able to obtain support from only 40% of Italian bishops and his proposal was dropped when Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the vicar of Rome, suggested Catholic supporters of communism might be excommunicating themselves.

In 1983, he resigned from his archdiocese because of heart disease and was named archbishop emeritus.

Poma’s death leaves 151 members of the Sacred College of Cardinals, of whom 117 are under the age of 80 and have the right to take part in a conclave to elect a new Pope.