1. Bernardin Gantin was a Beninese Catholic prelate who held senior positions in the Roman Curia for twenty years and the highest position in the College of Cardinals for nine years.
21 Facts About Bernardin Gantin
1. 2.
Bernardin Gantin began his career in his native country first as an auxiliary bishop and then as Archbishop of Cotonou.
3.
Bernardin Gantin retired and returned to Benin when he turned 80.
4.
Bernadin Gantin was born in Toffo, French Dahomey, on 8 May 1922.
5.
Bernardin Gantin entered the minor seminary in Ouidah at age fourteen and was ordained to the priesthood on 14 January 1951 in Lome, Togo, by Archbishop Louis Parisot of Cotonou.
6.
Bernardin Gantin then fulfilled pastoral assignments while teaching languages at the seminary.
7.
Bernardin Gantin received his episcopal consecration on 3 February 1957 from Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, Dean of the College of Cardinals.
8.
Bernardin Gantin was chairman of the West African Episcopal Conference.
9.
On 19 December 1975 he was named Vice President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and on 5 January 1976 Bernardin Gantin received the additional responsibilities of the Vice President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, as Pope Paul was combining those two departments.
10.
Bernardin Gantin was made a member of the order of cardinal deacons and assigned the deaconry of Sacro Cuore di Cristo Re.
11.
Bernardin Gantin met with John Paul I the day before he died.
12.
Bernardin Gantin participated in the 1978 conclaves that elected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II.
13.
Bernardin Gantin was made president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
14.
On 25 June 1984, Bernardin Gantin opted to become a member of the order of cardinal priests.
15.
On 5 June 1993, Bernardin Gantin was elected and confirmed Dean of the College of Cardinals, which gave him the additional title cardinal bishop of Ostia.
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Bernardin Gantin was the first non-European to hold this office and remains the only one.
17.
Bernardin Gantin ended his service as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on 25 June 1998.
18.
Bernardin Gantin said he had been shocked by overt expressions of "careerism" and "social climbing".
19.
Bernardin Gantin suggested that bishops should be transferred "to less developed, more difficult sees rather than to more comfortable and prestigious ones".
20.
Bernardin Gantin said that there should be no connection between a see and a place in the College of Cardinals, offering Milan as an example.
21.
Bernardin Gantin died at Pompidou Hospital in Paris after a long illness on 13 May 2008, less than a week after being transferred there from Benin and five days after his 86th birthday.