Bernardin Gantin
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His Eminence Bernardin Cardinal Gantin |
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| Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops | |
A photo of Cardinal Gantin taken sometime in the early years of his cardinalate
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| See | Palestrina (suburbicarian) |
| Installed | 8 April 1984 |
| Term ended | 25 June 1998 |
| 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 by Louis Parisot |
| Consecration | 3 February 1957 by Eugène Tisserant |
| Created Cardinal | 27 June 1977 by Pope Paul VI |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 May 1922 Toffo, Benin |
| Died | 13 May 2008 (aged 86) Paris, France |
| Coat of arms |  |
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Styles of Bernardin Gantin |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Palestrina (suburbicarian) |
Bernardin Gantin (8 May 1922 – 13 May 2008) was a prominent Beninese cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cotonou and then at the Vatican in the service of the Holy See as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and then as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops. Ultimately, he served as Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, a post his French consecrator as a bishop once held and the same position Joseph Ratzinger had after Gantin and before his election as Pope Benedict XVI. He was the highest ranking Catholic to come from Africa since ancient times, when some Popes were believed to have come from there. He enjoyed a close relationship with Pope John XXIII, Popes Paul VI and John Paul I, and most especially, with Pope John Paul II and his fellow curial cardinal and future Pope, Joseph Ratzinger. Like many senior African prelates of his era, he was relatively conservative, but was esteemed by both his native land and for his work in Rome. His tomb in Ouidah, which is frequently visited, was visited personally by Pope Benedict during the Papal Visit to Benin. In May 2013, Vatican officials inaugurated a Chair about "Socializing Policy in Africa" bearing his name at the Pontifical Lateran University.
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, who was then the Archbishop of Cotonou. In 1953 he was sent to Rome to study Theology and Canon Law.
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