Bernardin Gantin

His Eminence  Bernardin Gantin
Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
See	Palestrina (suburbicarian)
Enthroned	8 April 1984
Reign ended	25 June 1998 (&1000000000000001400000014 years, &1000000000000007800000078 days)
Predecessor	Sebastiano Baggio
Successor	Lucas Moreira Neves
Other posts	Dean of the College of Cardinals (1993-2002) President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (1976-84) Archbishop of Cotonou (1960-71)
Orders
Ordination	14 January 1951
Consecration	3 February 1957
Created Cardinal	27 June 1977
Personal details
Born	8 May 1922(1922-05-08) Toffo, Benin
Died	13 May 2008(2008-05-13) (aged 86) Paris, France
Coat of arms

Styles of Bernardin Gantin
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Palestrina (suburbicarian)

Bernardin Gantin (8 May 1922 – 13 May 2008) was a Beninese cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Early life and ordination

Born in Toffo, Benin, his name means "tree of iron" (gan, iron and tin, tree ), which explains his coat of arms. He entered the minor seminary at age 14 in Benin, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1951 under Archbishop Louis Parisot. In 1953 he was sent to Rome to study theology and Canon law.

Bishop

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.

Archbishop

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-Deacon of Sacro Cuore di Cristo Re in Pope Paul's final consistory in 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.

Congregation for Bishops

Under Pope John Paul II he headed the Congregation for Bishops, supervising episcopal appointments in the non-missionary Latin Rite dioceses throughout the world, from 1984 to 1998. He was appointed as Cardinal-Bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Palestrina in 1986, and as Dean of the College of Cardinals had the additional title of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, as the dean traditionally does, from 1993 to 2002 when he retired to move home to Benin. (He relinquished the title of the Ostia see when he retired.) Because he turned 80 on 8 May 2002, Cardinal Gantin was not eligible to vote in the 2005 Papal Election.

Death and mourning

Gantin died in Paris on 13 May 2008, five days after his 86th birthday. The Beninese government declared three days of mourning for him, beginning on 14 May.

Cardinal Gantin during a mass in San Fiorano (Lodi), Italy, in 1984

Following his death, a telegram was sent by Pope Benedict XVI to Marcel Honorat Léon Agboton, the current Archbishop of Cotonou, after the death of Gantin was announced. The telegram described Gantin as "an eminent son of Benin and Africa who won great respect within the universal Church". The Pope wrote "I ask God the Father, from Whom all mercy comes, to welcome into His light and peace this eminent son of Benin and of Africa who, universally esteemed, was animated by a profound apostolic spirit and by an exalted sense of the Church and her mission in the world."

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Benin

External links

• Official Vatican biography
• Biography from Catholic Hierarchy.org
• Biography

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Louis Parisot	Archbishop of Cotonou 1960 – 1971	Succeeded by Christophe Adimou
Preceded by Agnelo Rossi	Dean of the College of Cardinals 1993 – 2002	Succeeded by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Preceded by Sebastiano Baggio	Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops 8 April 1984–25 June 1998	Succeeded by Lucas Moreira Neves