Angelo Sodano

Early life

The second of six children, Angelo Sodano was born in Isola d'Asti, Piedmont, to Giovanni and Delfina Sodano. His father was a Christian Democrat deputy in the Italian Parliament for three terms from 1948 until 1963. After studying philosophy and theology at the seminary of Asti, Sodano was ordained a priest by Bishop Umberto Rossi on 23 September 1950, and then did pastoral work and taught dogmatic theology at the Asti seminary.

He then furthered his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, from where he obtained a doctorate in theology, and at the Pontifical Lateran University, earning a doctorate in canon law. In 1959 he entered the diplomatic corps of the Holy See. He served as secretary in nunciatures in Latin America, and was given the title of monsignor, initially with the rank of Chaplain of His Holiness and later with that of Honorary Prelate. In 1968 he was called to work in the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church in the Vatican.

Apostolic nuncio

On 30 November 1977, Sodano, who speaks English, German, Spanish, French and Italian, was appointed a titular archbishop of Nova Caesaris and the apostolic nuncio to Chile, one of the countries where he had served as nunciature secretary. He was consecrated in his native Asti by Cardinal Antonio Samoré on 15 January 1978.

He arrived at a difficult moment, with Chile on the brink of war with Argentina over the Beagle Channel and Augusto Pinochet in power.

In 1980, together with Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, he tried without success to get Pinochet to allow the return of certain political exiles, and in 1984 he obtained, at the cost of a dispute between the Holy See and the military government of Chile, safe conduct for four members of the Revolutionary Left Movement, who had sought diplomatic asylum in the nunciature, to leave for Ecuador.

In 1987, when Pope John Paul II visited Chile, Pinochet availed of the visit that the Pope regularly paid to a country's head of state to get the Pope to appear with him at a balcony of the presidential palace, although this was not in the agreed program. On the other hand, Sodano arranged a meeting in the nunciature between the Pope and the leaders of the opposition.

Seven Chilean priests then wrote to the Pope to have Sodano removed from his post as Nuncio. What the Pope did in fact in the following year was to appoint Sodano the Holy See's Secretary of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church, a post corresponding to that of a foreign minister, and on 1 December 1990 named him to the highest post in the Roman Curia, that of Secretary of State, creating him Cardinal-Priest of the titular church of S. Maria Nuova on 28 June 1991.

Secretary of State

On 29 June 1991, Angelo Sodano became Cardinal Secretary of State succeeding Cardinal Agostino Casaroli who had retired back on 1 December 1990. On 10 January 1994, Pope John Paul II named Sodano Cardinal Bishop of the suburbicarian see of Albano. Sodano however retained in commendam the cardinal-priest title to the church of Santa Maria Nuova.

On 27 December 1998, he wrote, at the request of the democratic government of Chile, an official letter to the British prime minister Tony Blair stating that "the Chilean Government considers it an offence to its territorial sovereignty as a nation the fact of being deprived of the power to judge its own citizens" through the detention of Pinochet in Britain.

Due to the deteriorating health of John Paul II, it was Cardinal Sodano, as Secretary of State, who was the principal celebrant at the funeral Masses for Cardinal John O'Connor and Mother Teresa. When in 2002 Sodano turned 75, John Paul specifically invited him to stay on as Secretary of State, though this is the customary retirement age for heads of major Vatican departments. (There is no retirement age for the Deanship or Vice-Deanship.) On 30 November 2002, exactly twenty-five years after he was first appointed a bishop, he was elected vice-dean of the College of Cardinals in succession to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Dean.

When Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, Sodano, who participated in the 2005 papal conclave, was not generally seen as one of the papabili, the cardinals likely to become the next pope. This was largely due to his advanced age (although he is seven months younger than the cardinal who was eventually elected, Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI), and his lack of experience outside the Roman Curia. During the conclave, because Cardinal Ratzinger, the pope-elect, was the Dean, it fell to Sodano as the Sub-Dean to exercise the duties normally allotted to the Dean in asking the pope-elect if he accepted his election and by what name he would be called. Also as the Sub-Dean and the most senior Cardinal-Bishop, Cardinal Sodano discharged the duties normally allotted to the Dean at the new pope's papal inauguration. At the papal inauguration, Cardinal Sodano presented Pope Benedict XVI with the Ring of the Fisherman, and along with the protopriest Stephen Kim Sou-hwan and the protodeacon Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, was one of the three cardinals who made the public profession of obedience to the new pope.

Sodano's position as Secretary of State expired upon the death of John Paul II. But Benedict XVI reappointed him to the position on 21 April 2005, in spite of being past the customary retirement age.

On 30 April Benedict formally ratified Sodano's election to the position of Dean of the College of Cardinals by the suburbicarian Cardinal Bishops. Accordingly, the title of the suburbicarian see of Ostia, proper of the dean, was added to the title of the see of Albano. At the same time, Sodano still retained in commendam the cardinal-priest title to the church of S. Maria Nuova.

On 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to replace Sodano as the Secretary of State. Bertone assumed the new office on 15 September 2006.

Sodano turned 80 on 23 November 2007, and thus became ineligible to participate in any future conclaves, though he remains Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals.

On Tuesday, 18 September 2012, Cardinal Sodano was named by Pope Benedict XVI as one of the Synod Fathers of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Catholic Synod of Bishops.

When Pope Benedict XVI resigned, Sodano as Dean of the College of Cardinals formally summoned the cardinals for the conclave during the sede vacante and also was the principal concelebrant of the Pro eligendo Pontifice mass concelebrated on the morning of the conclave. He was not eligible to participate in the actual conclave itself, which elected Pope Francis. At the inauguration of the new pope, Sodano, as Dean of the College of Cardinals, formally presented to Pope Francis his Ring of the Fisherman.

Sex abuse cases

Jason Berry writes that Sodano, as John Paul II's secretary of state, "pressured Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict, in two notorious cases," the Hans Hermann Groër case and the Marcial Maciel case, to stop investigations into abuse.

In his address as Dean of the College of Cardinals to Pope Benedict XVI at Easter 2010, Sodano told him: "The people of God are with you and do not allow themselves to be impressed by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials that sometimes assail the community of believers." Victims of clerical sex abuse interpreted the "petty gossip" remark as a highly inappropriate reference to their complaints.

On 8 May 2010, the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress published remarks made by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn in what was supposed to be a private conversation with newspaper editors. The Austrian cardinal criticized Sodano's "petty gossip" comment, and indicated that Sodano had blocked actions of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, who was serving as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had intended to carry out to investigate accusations against Schönborn's predecessor Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër. Schönborn added: "The days of cover-up are over. For a long while the Church's principle of forgiveness was falsely interpreted and was in favour of those responsible and not the victims."

Foreign honors

Dynastic Orders

Awards