Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone
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| Church positions | |
| See | Genoa (Emeritus) |
| Title | Cardinal Secretary of State |
| Period in office | September 15, 2006— present |
| Raised to cardinalate | October 21, 2003 |
| Predecessor | Angelo Cardinal Sodano |
| Successor | incumbent |
| Previous post | Archbishop of Genoa |
| Personal | |
| Date of birth | December 2, 1934 |
| Place of birth | Romano Canavese, Piedmont, Italy |
His Eminence Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, SDB, JCD (born 2 December 1934) is an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Vatican Secretary of State and Camerlengo, having previously served as Archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006. Bertone was elevated to the cardinalate in 2003.
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[edit] Biography
Bertone was born 2 December 1934 in Romano Canavese, Piedmont, the fifth of eight children. He revealed his mother was a determined anti-Fascist militant of the Italian Popular Party, and later a Christian Democrat.
He professed his vows as a member of the Salesians on 3 Dec 1950, and was ordained a priest by Archbishop Albino Mensa on 1 July 1960. The holder of a doctorate in Canon law, entitled The Governance of the Church in the Thought of Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) [1]. Bertone has taught extensively on the subject, and was appointed Rector of the Salesian Pontifical University (where he himself had studied) in 1989.
On 4 July 1991, Bertone was appointed Archbishop of Vercelli by Pope John Paul II, a post he would hold until his resignation in 1995 upon being named Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was consecrated a bishop one month later by Archbishop Mensa, who had also ordained him. Appointed Archbishop of Genoa on 10 December 2002 and installed on 2 February 2003, Bertone was elevated to the College of Cardinals in the consistory of 21 October 2003, being associated as Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Via Tuscolana.
As a member of the Society of Don Bosco, he is still considered as a priest who has undertaken work with youth who, in Pope John Paul's last words, he had sought throughout his papacy. There was a story that "Bertone’s priest secretary recalled for the paper an occasion in which Bertone decided to take a public bus to the Vatican. As the Cardinal in his long black cassock and red fascia strode on to the bus, the people - especially a group of young people – stared in silence. Bertone immediately broke the ice with his “characteristic” smile. By the time he reached his destination the prelate had engaged the youth in a deep conversation on love, sex, virginity, and chastity" [2]
Moreover, Bertone's dissertation on tolerance and religious freedom has given him a good start as a theologian and canonist in a crisis-ridden world. He actually later specialized in the relationship between social morality, faith and politics. He also helped in the revision of Code of Canon Law, and undertook pastoral work in parishes.
In the Jubilee Year 2000, Cardinal Bertone was entrusted by John Paul II with the publication of third part of the secret of Fatima.
Bertone was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
| Styles of Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Genoa (Emeritus) |
On 15 March 2005, Bertone was in the news for "breaking the Church's silence" and sharply criticizing Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, saying the book's central concept that Jesus had been married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a bloodline was heresy and "shameful", and that believers should boycott the book. Both Bertone and official Vatican spokespeople insisted that Bertone was not speaking as an official representative of the Church, but it was also noted that Bertone's high placement within the Church hierarchy (his name was often cited as a potential candidate for the next pontiff) gave his words considerable weight, such that his comments were often reported by various media as an official statement from the Vatican. [3] In 2006, the NBC news program Dateline described his statement as, "a high-ranking Vatican Cardinal called for a boycott of the film."
On 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Bertone to replace Angelo Cardinal Sodano as the Vatican's Secretary of State, assuming the office on 15 September later that year. It was revealed on 31 August 2006 that Cardinal Bertone had a dream in which Pope John Paul II spoke to him saying "do not be afraid" to the cardinal as he prepares to take his new job [4]. On 4 April 2007, Benedict XVI also appointed Cardinal Bertone as Chamberlain of the Roman Church (or Camerlengo) in succession to Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo, who reached his eightieth birthday on the previous March 31. The duties of the Camerlengo are largely confined to administration during the vacancy of the Holy See.
Bertone is known to study the problem at hand before taking action. One such example is when after he was named bishop he "locked himself in his room all night and studied the life of Saint Eusebius, who was bishop of the city back in 345 AD" [5]
Just before coming to his new office, in an interview in response to a question about Curial reform he said "after almost two decades, an evaluation of how the dicasteries are organised is more than comprehensible, in order to reflect on how to make the existing structures more efficient for the mission of the Church and eventually to consider whether all of them should be maintained." [6].
Cardinal Bertone suggested in December 2006 that the Holy See "could, in future, field a team that plays at the top level, with Roma, Inter Milan, Genoa and Sampdoria." He continued saying "If we just take the Brazilian students from our Pontifical universities we could have a magnificent squad."[7]. However only hours later he said that, "I've got much more to do than cultivating a football squad for the Vatican".
[edit] Pope Benedict XVI Islam Controversy
- See also: Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy
On 16 September 2006, Cardinal Bertone, after only one day in his job as Cardinal Secretary of State, released a declaration explaining that the "position of the Pope concerning Islam is unequivocally that expressed by the conciliar document Nostra Aetate" and that "the Pope's option in favour of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is equally unequivocal." [1]
| “ | As for the opinion of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus which he quoted during his Regensburg talk, the Holy Father did not mean, nor does he mean, to make that opinion his own in any way. He simply used it as a means to undertake — in an academic context, and as is evident from a complete and attentive reading of the text — certain reflections on the theme of the relationship between religion and violence in general, and to conclude with a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence, from whatever side it may come. [The Pope] sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions. [2][3] (emphasis as in original) | ” |
[edit] Comments by Patriarch Alexius II
On 5 December 2006 Patriarch Alexius II accused that Holy See of an "extremely unfriendly policy" [8] when he said that the Church was poaching converts in Orthodox lands in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics. In response Cardinal Bertone said that, "We do not want to engage in proselytism in Russia" [9].
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi |
Archbishop of Genova 2002 - 2006 |
Succeeded by Angelo Bagnasco |
| Preceded by Angelo Cardinal Sodano |
Cardinal Secretary of State 2006 – present |
Incumbent |
| Preceded by Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo |
Camerlengo 2007–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
