From diplomacy to dialogue

by Gianni Cardinale

Benedict XVI with Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, Archivist and Librarian of Holy Roman Church, during a visit to the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Vatican Secret Archive, 25 June

The French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran was born on 5 April 1943 in Bordeaux. He did classical studies at the “Michel Montaigne” Lycée in his native city and, after two years spent in the diocesan major seminary, he was sent to Rome to study at the Pontifical French Seminary. Ordained priest on 20 September 1969, in 1973 he was called back to Rome where he attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. Again in Rome he took a degree in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In March 1975 he joined the Vatican diplomatic service, and was assigned to the Apostolic nunciature in the Dominican Republic, where he worked until 1979, when he was transferred to the Apostolic nunciature in Lebanon. He remained in Beirut until July of 1983, when was called to work in the Council of Public Affairs of the Church where he mainly dealt with international bodies. In 1988 he was nominated “Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs” of the Holy See. And two years later, on 1 December 1990, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Telepte and made Head of the “Vatican Foreign Office”. A post he filled for thirteen years, until 2003 when John Paul II created him cardinal and appointed him Archivist and Librarian of Holy Roman Church. On 25 June Benedict XVI nominated him President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, a post he took up on 1 September.
Currently the cardinal is a member of numerous Vatican departments. He belongs in fact to the Council of the II Section of the Secretariat of State; to the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches and for the Bishops; to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State; to the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signet; and to the Administration of Property of the Apostolic See.
Cardinal Tauran, who plays the piano and the organ, is a great admirer of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is very fond of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Frédéric Chopin. A great fan of opera, his favorite is Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. A devourer of books, what he prefers are biographies of the great historical figures. At the moment he is near the end of Richelieu et l’Église (Via Romana, Versailles, pp. 346, 25 euro), the latest work of the elderly but ever lively French Jesuit Pierre Blet, devoted to one of most famous cardinals in French history.