 After working in the Italian Army and Milan, he was named private secretary to Achille Ratti in 1921.Confalonieri travelled with Ratti to Rome as his attendant, or conclavist, for the 1922 papal conclave, at which the Cardinal was elected to the papacy as Pius XI.He continued to serve as Ratti's secretary until the Pope's death in 1939, and during that period he was raised to the rank of Monsignor (7 February 1922), Protonotary Apostolic (24 December 1935), and canon of St. Peter's Basilica (1935).