Relics. He was named Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. In 1900, he was named prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites which handled the process for canonizations. In that capacity he oversaw much of the procedure regarding the cause of Joan of Arc. He participated in the conclave of 1903, which elected Pope Pius X. In 1901 he was sent as nuncio to Paris by Pope Leo XIII with the mission to work for the reconciliation with the third French Republic. As papal legate, he presided over the 1905 Canonical coronation of the image of the Immaculate Conception of Cospicua in Malta. Ferrata played an important part in the preparation of Quam singulari the 1910 decree concerning the admittance of children to communion. In 1913 he was named Archpriest of the patriarchal Lateran basilica. In January 1914 Pope Pius X named him to succeed Mariano Cardinal Rampolla, who had died on 13 December 1913, as Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. Pope Pius X died on 20 August 1914. Ferrata opened the conclave opened on August 31, 1914, celebrating the Mass of the Holy Spirit in the Pauline Chapel. The newly elected Pope Benedict XV appointed Ferrata Secretary of State, in place of Rafael Merry del Val. However, Ferrata was already in ill health and died the month after his appointment at age seventy. He was buried in Gradoli. References Ferrata Ferrata Ferrata Ferrata Pope Benedict XV Pope Leo XIII Apostolic Nuncios to Belgium Cardinal Secretaries of State Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII Members of the Holy Office Members of the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments Presidents of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy