The Salesian Cardinals

Don Bosco’s Sons Who Became Cardinals

Abp. Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas (1921-2007)

(ANS – Rome – Sept. 19, 2023) – Three years after the consistory in which he had placed 3 SDBs in the College of Cardinals, in 1988 St. John Paul II also awarded a red hat to Spanish Salesian Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas, a true scholar and teacher, a great academic and promoter of ecumenical dialog.

Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas was born in Sietamo, in the Spanish community of Aragon, on February 21, 1921. After completing his primary and secondary studies in Huesca, Zaragoza, and Barcelona, he entered the Salesian novitiate in Girona in 1939. He made his first profession on September 11, 1940. He took philosophy courses in Girona, Barcelona, and Salamanca, pedagogy courses in Girona and Santander, theology courses in Salamanca, Rome, and Louvain. He made his perpetual vows on January 6, 1946, in Salamanca and received his priestly ordination on April 24, 1949, in the same city.

Following the example of Don Bosco, he would have liked to live his vocation as a Salesian in direct contact with young people in a mission land, but Providence called him to other positions. Thus he was an apostle in the university environment and the environments of the Roman Curia. He never missed the opportunity to carry out his intense spiritual activity in the essentially theological field, but also in the broader field of culture, above all leading groups of professors and religious and as a chaplain to university students.

After obtaining his doctorate in theology, from 1951 to 1976 he was professor of fundamental theology at the Salesian Pontifical University in Turin.

He was called on as an expert for the Spanish episcopate to the work of the Second Vatican Council. As a consultant to the Secretariat for Christian Unity, for a 3-year period he was a member of the Faith and Order commission within the Council of Churches. In a different capacity, he participated in the 3 world conferences of the same Council held in New Delhi, Uppsala, and Nairobi. In addition, he took part in some conferences on Faith and Order and Church and Society held in Geneva. Finally, he spoke at the meetings of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in Paris, Geneva, Utrecht, and Heraklion.

From 1959 to 1971 he also held the position of dean of the School of Theology at the Salesian University and was rector magnificus from 1971 to 1974. It was during this period as rector that the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum (PAS) was elevated to the rank of Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), based in Rome.

His academic activity was particularly intense in those years: in particular, he dedicated entire years of studies and teaching to the chair of dogmatic theology and to the ecumenical seminary. He was also invited numerous times to different universities in Rome and other cities. In addition, he was the creator, founder, and general secretary of the Symposia of Fundamental Theology in Louvain and Gazzada.

On May 20, 1976, Pope Paul VI appointed him as secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education and titular archbishop of Meta. He was ordained bishop the following June 29 – and had among his co-consecrators Archbishop Rosalio José Castillo Lara, also destined for the red hat a few years later.

His Salesianity was also shown in the choice of his episcopal coat of arms, a depiction of Don Bosco's Dream of the Two Columns. In fact, his writings and actions always showed his great love for Mary Help of Christians and Jesus in the Eucharist (“Everything is attracted by this center of gravity,” he wrote in one of his letters to Pope John Paul II).

Within the Roman Curia, he offered the contribution of his knowledge and experience to numerous dicasteries. He carried out an intense activity of theological dissemination and apostolate in the world of culture, especially thru groups of professors and religious engaged in the fields of education and, as chaplain, among university students.

He was created cardinal by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988, and out of respect for Salesian origins he was assigned Santa Maria Liberatrice at Monte Testaccio as his titular church in Rome, a church entrusted to the pastoral care of the Salesians.

On July 1, 1988, he was appointed archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library. He held these positions until January 24, 1992, when he was appointed prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He carried out this service until  June 21, 1996, and then left it “on tiptoe” to dedicate himself to the service that must never be abandoned: prayer, as Benedict XVI said of him.

Ill and worn out by treatment, he died of a heart attack at dawn on February 1, 2007, a few hours after celebrating a solemn Mass in honor of St. John Bosco. After the funeral presided over by the Holy Father in St. Peter's Basilica, he was buried in the catacombs of St. Callistus.