After studying at the seminary in Piacenza and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Ersilio Menzani on 10 June 1928.

He received his episcopal consecration on the following 16 April from Clemente Micara, with Archbishop Filippo Bernardini and Bishop Alberto Carinci serving as co-consecrators, in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

A protégé of Alfredo Ottaviani, the heavily conservative Samorè advised Pope Paul against granting his approval to artificial birth control.

[3] Following the death of Giovanni Urbani in 1969, Cardinal Samorè was one of the leading contenders to succeed him as Patriarch of Venice; the position went to Bishop Albino Luciani.

From 1978 to 1983, he acted as a special representative of Pope John Paul II, earning Samorè the nickname "the Vatican Kissinger",[4] for mediating the dispute between Chile and Argentina, which were on the brink of war because of a disagreement concerning the ownership of the strategic Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands during the Beagle conflict.