The Salesian Cardinals

Don Bosco’s Sons Who Became Cardinals
Abp. Tarcisio Bertone

(ANS – Rome – Sept. 22, 2023) – The last Salesian created cardinal by Pope John Paul II was the then- archbishop of Genoa, Tarcisio Bertone, who later became a great colleague of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and then Vatican secretary of state when the latter ascended to the papal throne as Benedict XVI.

Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone was born in Romano Canavese, in Salesian Piedmont, on December 2, 1934, as the 5th of 8 children, and was baptized on December 9 of the same year. In his youth he attended the Salesian Oratory at Valdocco in Turin, and it was also in Turin that he was educated at the Salesian high school at Valsalice.

After finishing high school he began his novitiate with the Salesians in Pinerolo, making his 1st religious profession on December 3, 1950, his perpetual profession on August 15, 1956. He was ordained on July 1, 1960.

After obtaining his licentiate in theology at the Salesian Theological School in Turin with a dissertation on tolerance and religious freedom, he continued his studies in Rome, at the Salesian Pontifical University, where he obtained his licentiate and doctorate in canon law, with research on “The Government of the Church in the Thought of Benedict XIV - Pope Lambertini (1740-1758).”

In 1967 he was called to Rome to take up the chair of Special Moral Theology at the Salesian University, which later became the Salesian Pontifical University (1973), where he taught for 10 years.

In 1976 he was called to direct the School of Canon Law, where he taught “Public Ecclesiastical Law” until 1991, becoming full professor. Among other things, he has also taught international law and children’s law (in line with the pedagogical specialization of the UPS), and legislation and catechetical and youth ministry organization. From 1978 he was professor of public ecclesiastical law at the Institutum Utriusque Iuris of the Lateran Pontifical University.

In addition to publicity activity, he carried out managerial tasks at communities in the Salesian University in Rome: he was director of theologians (1974-1976), dean of the School of Canon Law (1979-1985), vice rector (1987-1989) and then rector magnificus (1989-1991) of the Salesian University.

In Rome he also collaborated with several parishes and contributed to the promotion of the laity (centers of theological and apostolic formation). He collaborated in the last phase of the revision of the Code of Canon Law and carried out promotional activities for its reception in the particular Churches. He directed the working group that translated the Code into Italian, with the approval of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

Since the 1980s, he has also exercised expert service to the Holy See as a consultor in various dicasteries of the Roman Curia, actively collaborating above all with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On August 1, 1991, the Holy Father called him to lead the oldest diocese in Piedmont, as archbishop of Vercelli. On January 28, 1993, he was appointed by the Italian Episcopal Conference president of the Ecclesial Commission for Justice and Peace, and in that office he promoted research and initiatives for education in legality, justice, and morality.

On June 13, 1995, John Paul II appointed him secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, thus confirming what St. Eusebius, 1st bishop of Vercelli, said and was taken up in the episcopal motto: “Fidem custodire, concordiam servare” (Guard the faith, preserve harmony). In this capacity, he would then be able to collaborate closely with the then-prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger. In this position, in addition to following some of the most delicate cases received by CDF, he also collaborated in the drafting of the declaration “Dominus Iesus”; and in 2000, during the Jubilee, he was commissioned by John Paul II to publish the 3d part of the “secret of Fatima,” for which he had the opportunity to speak several times with visionary, Sister Lucia of Fatima.

On December 10, 2002, John Paul II appointed him archbishop of Genoa, where he entered on February 2, 2003, and was also president of the Ligurian Episcopal Conference.

Created a cardinal by St. John Paul II in the consistory of October 21, 2003, under Pope Benedict XVI he became secretary of state on September 15, 2006, and later also camerlengo of Holy Roman Church, a position he held until December 20, 2014, and for which he was at the helm of the Curia between the death of Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis.

He retained the position of secretary of state in the first months of Francis’s pontificate, and then passed the service to Archbishop Pietro Parolin on October 15, 2013.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Cardinal Bertone’s episcopal ordination, on August 1, 2016, Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “History, whose measure is the truth of the Cross, will make evident the intense activity of Cardinal Bertone, who has also shown to have the Piedmontese temperament of the great worker who does not spare any effort in promoting the good of the Church.”