Pompedda was born in
Ozieri in Sardinia. He studied at
seminaries in
Sassari and
Cuglieri and was ordained a priest in Rome on 23 December 1951. He obtained a doctorate in theology from the
Pontifical Gregorian University, and a doctorate
in utroque iure (in civil law and canon law) from the
Pontifical Lateran University. He became an officer of the
Roman Rota, the general
appellate court of the Catholic Church, in 1955, serving as a
defender of the bond. He joined the tribunal as an auditor in 1969 and served in that capacity until he became
Dean of the Roman Rota in 1993. He was appointed Prefect of the
Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest tribunal in the church, in 1999. He resigned this position, as is customary, upon reaching the age of 75, on 18 April 2004, and his resignation was accepted on 27 May 2004. Pompedda was appointed
titular Archbishop of
Bisarcio on 29 November 1997 and consecrated on 6 February 1998. He was proclaimed a
Cardinal-Deacon of
Santissima Annunciazione della Beata Vergine Maria a Via Ardeatina by
Pope John Paul II on 21 February 2001. He was one of the
cardinal electors who participated in the
2005 papal conclave that selected
Pope Benedict XVI. It was suspected that he may have been the source of information about the conclave published in the Italian journalist
Lucio Brunelli in the journal
Limes in September 2005; many also suspected that the information was false. Cardinal Pompedda also served as president of the
appellate court of
Vatican City and, from 1999, as president of the
Court of Cassation of Vatican City. He is credited with drafting
Universi Dominici Gregis. Pompedda taught
canon law at the
Pontifical Gregorian University. He was also involved in the revision of the code of canon law in 1983, the first substantial revision since 1917. He was also the principal editor of
Universi Dominici Gregis, the apostolic constitution of Pope John Paul II published in 1995, which set the rules for the
sede vacante and papal conclave. He supported proposals to make it easier to obtain an annulment of marriage, and gave several public lectures in 2003 outlining the changes. He retired before the changes were implemented, and the final document,
Dignitas connubii, did not go as far he had expected, reaffirming existing doctrine instead. Pompedda was appointed as the Cardinal Grand Prior of the
Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George by order of the Grand Master, the
Duke of Castro. In November 2003, he became the Ecclesiastical Counsellor of the Order by appointment of
Pope John Paul II. This position continued under
Pope Benedict XVI. ==Death and funeral==