Bernardin Gantin

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Bernardin Cardinal Gantin
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
relstyle=
deathstyle=
See=Palestrina (suburbicarian)

Bernardin Cardinal Gantin (8 May 1922 – 13 May 2008) was a Beninese cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the highest-ranking black African in the history of the Catholic Church, though three early Popes came from the Mediterranean shores of the African landmass. Born in Toffo, Benin, his name means tree of iron ("gan", tree and "tin", iron), which explains his coat of arms.

He entered the minor seminary at age 14 in Benin, and achieved priesthood in 1951 under Archbishop Louis Parisot. In 1953 he was sent to Rome to study theology and Canon law. He was consecrated bishop of Tipasa of Mauritania and Auxiliary of Cotonou in 1957 by Cardinal Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant, to whose then post of Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals he would one day succeed. In 1960, Pope John XXIII appointed him Archbishop of Cotonou. After he attended the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI appointed him to the Roman Curia and made him a Cardinal in the consistory of 1977. He was named President of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" by Pope John Paul I, the only administrative appointment of that month-long papacy. During the Conclave following John Paul I's death, Cardinal Gantin was thought to be one of the "papabili", those cardinals who are considered favorites to be elected pope.

Under Pope John Paul II he headed the Congregation for Bishops, supervising episcopal appointments throughout the world, from 1984 to 1998. Cardinal Bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Palestrina since 1986, he was Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1993 to 2002 when he retired to move home to Benin. (He added the suburbicarian diocese of Ostia when he became dean and relinquished it when he retired.) Because he turned 80 on May 8 2002, Cardinal Gantin was not eligible to vote in the 2005 Papal Election.

Gantin died in Paris on 13 May 2008, five days after his 86th birthday. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article3932927.ece Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, Africa's leading cardinal, has died] ; "The Times", 14 May 2008] The Beninese government declared three days of mourning for him, beginning on 14 May. [ [http://apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=63569 "Benin starts three-day national mourning for late Cardinal Gantin"] , African Press Agency, May 14, 2008.]

ee also

*Roman Catholicism in Benin

References

External links

* [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/documentazione/documents/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_gantin_b_en.html Official Vatican biography]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bgantinb.html Biography from Catholic Hierarchy.org]
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-g.htm#Gantin Biography]