Bevilacqua Left Bulk of a $375,000 Estate to the Church

By John P. Martin
Philadelphia Inquirer
May 12, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/151200555.html

Springfield High students and members of the Gospel Disciples celebrate the life of French teacher James Taylor, who died last summer of cancer

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua left an estate worth about $375,000 when he died in January and bequeathed nearly all of it to two institutions central to the church he led for 15 years: St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Bevilacqua’s four-page will, filed in Montgomery County, shows he also left $25,000 to his nephew and executor, the Msgr. John Alesandro.

He gave $5,000 to pay for Mass intentions, in minimum $20 increments, at the Diocese of Rockville Center, N.Y., where Alesandro serves. Bevilacqua was born nearby in Brooklyn, and later served as an auxiliary bishop there.

He was 88 when he died Jan. 31 at the Wynnewood seminary, where he had lived since retiring as archbishop in 2003.

He had cancer and dementia. County Coroner Walter I. Hofman ruled that he died of natural causes.

Bevilacqua signed his four-page will on May 11, 2004, about seven months after he stepped down at 80, the customary retirement age for cardinals. Among the witnesses who signed the document was his longtime secretary, Lorraine Zaccagni.

The will does not include details or a breakdown of his estate, except to say that he left his books to the seminary library and gave his executor a memo with instructions on how to distribute or dispose of other personal items.

David Winkowski, the estate lawyer who helped prepare the will, said Friday he could not disclose those items or information that was not in the public document. Alesandro could not be reached.

Contact John P. Martin at 215-854-4774 or at jmartin@phillynews.com Follow him @JPMartinInky on Twitter.