[3] 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 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 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.

[1] On 18 February 2010, his remains were reinterred in a specially constructed sarcophagus in the cathedral of Ozieri at the chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament.