Eduardo Martínez Somalo
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His Eminence Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo JCD (born March 31, 1927) is a Spanish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is currently Chamberlain Emeritus of the Roman Church, or Camerlengo, serving in that position until his 80th birthday, and in the past he has served as Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Roman Curia. He was a close collaborator of Pope John Paul II.
[edit] Biography
Somalo was born in the small town of Baños de Río Tobía in Calahorra, Spain, and had five brothers and four sisters. He studying at the diocesan seminary of Logroño, the Pontifical Spanish College and the Pontifical Gregorian University (where he received a licentiates in theology and in canon law) in Rome. Somalo was ordained to the priesthood on March 19, 1950 by Archbishop Luigi Traglia, and did pastoral and curial work in Calahorra. Returning to Rome to prepare to serve as a Vatican diplomat, he attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy (where he later taught as a professor) and obtained a doctorate in canon law (1956) from the Pontifical Lateran University.
He then entered the Roman Curia, in the Secretariat of State; he later advanced to the head the Spanish section. Somalo was elevated to the rank of Monsignor on May 14, 1970. Pope Paul VI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Colombia and Titular Archbishop of Thagora. Somalo received his episcopal consecration on December 13, 1975, from Jean-Marie Cardinal Villot, then Secretary of State, with Archbishop Giovanni Benelli and Bishop Francisco Álvarez Martínez serving as co-consecrators. In 1979 Pope John Paul II appointed Somalo to the Secretariat of State.
| Styles of Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Thagora (titular) |
In the consistory of June 28, 1988, he was created Cardinal Deacon of SS. Nome di Gesù by John Paul II, and on July 1 of that year he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Cardinal protodeacon from January 29, 1996 to January 9, 1999.
Somalo became Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on January 21, 1992, and was named Chamberlain of the Roman Church, or Camerlengo, on April 5, 1993, an office of special importance during vacancy of the Holy See. After serving ten years as a Cardinal Deacon, in 1999 he took the option of becoming a Cardinal Priest.
He retired on February 11, 2004, and participated as a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave. He ceased as Camerlengo on his 80th birthday, and was succeeded by Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone.
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| Preceded by Paul Augustin Cardinal Mayer |
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments 1988–1992 |
Succeeded by Antonio María Cardinal Javierre Ortas |
| Preceded by Sebastiano Cardinal Baggio |
Camerlengo 1993–2007 |
Succeeded by Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone |
