Secretary of State of two popes

by Roberto Rotondo

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who was born in 1927, is Dean of the College of Cardinals. From his native diocese of Asti he was called in 1959 to serve the Holy See. He worked in the Apostolic Nunciatures in Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile. He was Secretary of State of Pope John Paul II from 1991, and was confirmed in that post by Pope Benedict XVI till 2006. He represented the Holy See at various United Nations conferences and European institutions. Libreria Editrice Vaticana has published Cardinal Sodano’s: La corteccia e il tronco [The bark and the trunk] (1998), Il lievito del Vangelo [The leaven of the Gospel] (2006), Verso le origini [Towards the origins] (2008).