See Frascati Nationality French Term ended 9 March 1979 Name Jean-Marie Villot Ordination April 19, 1930 | Role Clergy Consecration October 12, 1954 Rank Cardinal-Bishop Successor Agostino Casaroli Appointed May 2, 1969 | |
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Other posts Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati
Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber Born 11 October 1905
Saint-Amant-Tallende, Puy-de-Dome, France ( 1905-10-11 ) Died March 9, 1979, Vatican City | ||
Created Cardinal 22 February 1965 Predecessor Amleto Giovanni Cicognani | ||
Jean-Marie Villot (11 October 1905 – 9 March 1979) was a French prelate and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Lyon from 1965 to 1967, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy from 1967 to 1969, Vatican Secretary of State from 1969 to 1979, and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church from 1970 to 1979. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.
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Early life
He was born in Saint-Amant-Tallende, Puy-de-Dôme, to Joseph and Marie (née Laville) Villot; he was an only child. Before serving in the military until 2 August 1924, he studied for the priesthood in Riom, Clermont, and Lyon. He became a Marist novice on 7 September 1925, but left the order three months later. He went on to study at the Catholic Institute of Paris and the Pontifical Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome, where he earned a licentiate in canon law and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1934 with a thesis entitled Le pape Nicolas II et le décret de 1059 sur l'élection pontificale.
Priesthood
He was ordained a priest on 19 April 1930 by Archbishop Alfred-Henri-Marie Baudrillart. Villot was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Paris, and, from 1931–34, he served as secretary to Pierre-Marie Gerlier, bishop of Tarbes-et-Lourdes. He taught at the Clermont seminary and the Catholic University in Lyon, becoming vice-rector of the latter in 1942 and holding the post for the next eight years.
Bishop and Cardinal
Working in the French Episcopal Conference in the early 1950s, Villot was appointed auxiliary bishop of Paris and titular bishop of Vinda on 2 September 1954. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 12 October from Cardinal Maurice Feltin, with Archbishop Emile Guerry of Cambrai and Bishop Pierre de la Chanonie of Clermont as co-consecrators.
On 17 December 1959, he was promoted to Coadjutor Archbishop of Lyon and titular archbishop of Bosporus. During the Second Vatican Council, he served as the Council's Undersecretary, succeeding Cardinal Gerlier as Archbishop of Lyon on 17 January 1965. On 22 February 1965 he was created Cardinal-Priest of SS. Trinità al Monte Pincio by Pope Paul VI.
He was named Prefect of the Congregation for Council (later renamed the Congregation for the Clergy) in the Roman Curia on 7 April 1967, and would play a prominent role in the reign of Paul VI, being named Cardinal Secretary of State on 2 May 1969. In this latter position, he battled with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre over canon law and the ignored order to disband the Society of St. Pius X.
Villot was named Chamberlain of the Roman Church, also known as the Camerlengo, on 16 October 1970, the first non-Italian to hold the office in half a millennium. On 15 July 1971, he was appointed President of the newly formed Pontifical Council Cor Unum until 4 September 1978, when he resigned during the brief pontificate of Pope John Paul I.
Elevated to Cardinal Bishop of Frascati on 12 December 1974, Villot remained Secretary of State for the remainder of Paul VI's reign, and was retained in the same capacity under both John Paul I and John Paul II. Villot participated as a cardinal elector in both the August and October conclaves of 1978, which selected John Paul I and John Paul II respectively. In his capacity of Camerlengo, he served as the interim administrator of the Vatican between Paul VI's death and John Paul I's election, and between John Paul I's death and John Paul II's election.
Death
Villot died from bronchial pneumonia on 9 March 1979, in his Vatican City apartment, at age 73. John Paul II celebrated his funeral Mass in St. Peter's Basilica four days later, and his remains were buried in the crypt of Ss. Trinità al Monte Pincio.