a month-long illness on 29 September 1877 in Naples; his remains were exposed then buried in the church of San Mario del Pianto and the Naples Cathedral before being moved to their final resting place in the chapel of the SS. Crocifisso in the church of SS. XII Apostoli in April 1927. Pius IX mourned Sforza's death and referred to the late cardinal as his "right arm". Pope Leo XIII later mused that he would not be elected pope with Cardinal Riario Sforza alive; Leo XIII was elected in 1878 a few months after the cardinal had died. Beatification process The beatification process opened in Naples in an informative phase of an investigation that Alessio Ascalesi inaugurated on 10 May 1927 in the metropolitan cathedral and closed at a solemn Mass on 12 July 1936. Another process was conducted in Rome from 19 January to 3 March 1943. Theologians collected and evaluated all of Sforza's writings to determine if such writings adhered to Church doctrine; the theologians confirmed this and approved them in a decree issued on 3 February 1946. The formal introduction to the cause came under Pope Pius XII on 3 August 1947 and Sforza was titled as a Servant of God. Ascalesi oversaw the beginning of an apostolic process on 14 July 1950 which was concluded under Ascalesi's successor Marcello Mimmi on 28 November 1952. Michele Giordano oversaw the final investigation from 27 June 1995 until sometime later. The documentation collected from these processes was sent in boxes to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints who validated the previous processes on 23 May 1997; the C.C.S. later received the Positio dossier for evaluation in 2003. Historical consultants approved the cause on 30 March 2004. Theologians confirmed the cause on 18 February 2011 as did the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. on 8 May 2012. Pope Benedict XVI named Sforza as Venerable on 28 June 2012 after confirming that Sforza had lived a model Christian life of heroic virtue. The current postulator for this cause is the Franciscan friar Giovangiuseppe Califano. See also Our Lady of La Salette Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Naples References Further reading Zigarelli, Daniello Maria, Biografie dei vescovi e arcivescovi della chiesa di Napoli con una descrizione del clero, della cattedrale, della basilica di s. Restituta e della cappella del tesoro di s. Gennaro, Napoli, Tipografico di G. Gioja, 1861, pp.