21 Facts About Achille Silvestrini

Achille Silvestrini was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church.

Achille Silvestrini served in the Vatican diplomatic corps, either in Rome or abroad, from 1953 to 1990, and later as Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches from 1991 to 2000.

Achille Silvestrini earned a doctorate at the University of Bologna in 1948 and a doctorate in canon and civil law at the Pontifical Lateran University.

Achille Silvestrini began studying at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1952 and joined the Vatican diplomatic service, section of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, Secretariat of State, in 1953.

Achille Silvestrini was charge d'affaires in the Holy See's diplomatic offices in Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia.

Achille Silvestrini served as personal secretary to cardinals Domenico Tardini and Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, as well as in the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church from 1969 to 1979, where he was in charge of the section for international organisations, peace, disarmament, and human rights.

Achille Silvestrini traveled to Moscow with Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, secretary of the council, to deliver the instrument of adhesion of the Holy See to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1971.

Achille Silvestrini headed the Holy See's delegation to the United Nations conference on the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Geneva in 1971 and to the conference on compliance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in the same city in 1975.

Achille Silvestrini was appointed undersecretary of the Council for the Public Affairs of Church on 28 July 1973.

Achille Silvestrini was appointed Secretary for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State on 4 May 1979 and assigned the titular see of Novaliciana with the title of archbishop.

Achille Silvestrini worked for the next five years on the revision of the Lateran Treaty on its fiftieth anniversary, and signed a revised treaty that reflected the rapid secularisation of Italy since the 1960s.

Achille Silvestrini was involved in a number of other concordats between the Vatican and other countries, most notably in the Falklands War of the early 1980s and the war in Nicaragua.

On 28 June 1988, Achille Silvestrini was created cardinal-deacon of the titular church of San Benedetto fuori Porta San Paolo.

Achille Silvestrini retired from both of those positions on 25 November 2000.

In May 2001, when a consistory of cardinals discussed the role and performance of the Synod of Bishops, Achille Silvestrini was among the critics.

Achille Silvestrini was present at the death of Pope John Paul II.

Achille Silvestrini called the work of the council and the plans of Pope John XXIII "an unfinished task" and said the church needs "a new language to talk to humanity today, and in particular to the new generations, and to give adequate answers to modernity".

Achille Silvestrini was chair of the Collegio universitario Fondazione Comunita Domenico Tardini, which was founded in 1946 to support war orphans.

Achille Silvestrini called it "one of the unhappy reforms of Paul VI".

Achille Silvestrini told reporters to watch Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster.

Achille Silvestrini died at his home in Vatican City on 29 August 2019, at the age of 95.