Bernardin Gantin

Bernadin Gantin was born in Toffo, French Dahomey (now Benin), on 8 May 1922. His name means "tree of iron" (gan, iron and tin, tree ). His father was a railway worker. On 11 December 1956, Pope Pius XII appointed him titular bishop of Tipasa and auxiliary bishop of Cotonou. He received his episcopal consecration on 3 February 1957 from Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, Dean of the College of Cardinals. As archbishop, he attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), where he first became friends with the future Pope John Paul II. He was chairman of the West African Episcopal Conference. ==Roman curia==

Pope Paul VI appointed him to the Roman Curia and gave him a series of assignments, starting as adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 1971 and secretary of that Congregation in 1973. On 19 December 1975 he was named Vice President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and on 5 January 1976 Gantin received the additional responsibilities of the Vice President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, as Pope Paul was combining those two departments. On 4 September 1978, he was named President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum by Pope John Paul I, the only administrative appointment of his month-long papacy. Gantin met with John Paul I the day before he died. At the first of them he was reportedly one of three cardinals who counted the votes. During the second of these conclaves, Gantin was thought to be one of the papabili, those cardinals who are thought to have a chance of being elected pope. (Lodi), Italy, 1984 In 1982, he accompanied Pope John Paul II on his visit to Benin. which supervises episcopal appointments in the non-missionary Latin Rite dioceses throughout the world. He was also made president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. On 25 June 1984, Gantin opted to become a member of the order of cardinal priests. For the next fourteen years he collaborated with Pope John Paul in shaping the hierarchy of the Church, both in making appointments and in managing the agendas for the periodic visits bishops make to consult with the pope and the Curia. On the pope's behalf he managed appointments of conservative prelates in dioceses that did not welcome them in the Netherlands and Switzerland, removed an outspoken liberal French bishop, contended with Latin American advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples, and the excommunication of Marcel Lefebvre, with whom he had worked in Africa in the 1960s. ==Cardinal bishop and dean==

On 29 September 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed Gantin cardinal bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Palestrina, one of six Latin-church members of the highest rank of cardinals, responsible for electing the dean and sub dean of the college who manage the conclave that elects the pope. The six Latin-church cardinal bishops elect the dean and subdean, who takes his position when the pope consents to the election. On 5 June 1993, Gantin was elected and confirmed Dean of the College of Cardinals, which gave him the additional title cardinal bishop of Ostia. He was the first non-European to hold this office and remains the only one, . He ended his service as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on 25 June 1998. Less than a year later, in April 1999, he endorsed a views of Cardinal Vincenzo Fagiolo that bishops need to consider themselves married to their sees and expect their relationship to be lifelong. He said he had been shocked by overt expressions of "careerism" and "social climbing". He suggested that bishops should be transferred "to less developed, more difficult sees rather than to more comfortable and prestigious ones". He also said that there should be no connection between a see and a place in the College of Cardinals, offering Milan as an example. On 29 November 2002, with the permission of Pope John Paul, he retired as Dean of the College of Cardinals and cardinal bishop of Ostia, which required he reside in Rome. Now eighty years old, he retired to Cotonou, He remained cardinal bishop of Palestrina. Two years into his retirement he described his situation: "I left Rome in body but not in spirit. I am a Roman missionary in my country." In retirement he spoke more freely than he had while under the obligations of office. In 2006 he criticized his contemporary bishops in Africa: "If I have to make a complaint it would be this: if at one time the bishops moved little, today they travel too much. Sitting down, listening, praying with their own believers is more that ever necessary and urgent for them. Always keeping in mind what is set down in canon 395 of the Code of Canon Law on the obligation of residence in their diocese, they can also be an example to their own priests." He warned against allowing African priests to relocate permanently in Europe, to "roam the dioceses of the Western world more in search of their own material comfort than out of genuine pastoral zeal". And he warned European religious orders against such personnel transfers: "The European religious congregations on their last legs or threatened with extinction should not go seeking cheap reinvigoration among the young Churches in Asia or Africa." ==Death and legacy==

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. The Beninese government declared three days of mourning for him, beginning on 14 May. Pope Benedict XVI visited his tomb in the chapel of the Seminary of Saint Gall in Ouidah on 19 November 2011. In May 2013, Vatican officials inaugurated a chair named for him devoted to "Socializing Policy in Africa" at the Pontifical Lateran University. The Cadjehoun Airport, Benin's main international airport, was named in his honor. ==Cause of beatification==

On 30 January 2025, the Episcopal Conference of the Italian Region of Lazio, which includes the Diocese of Rome, has issued a favourable opinion for the opening of the cause for beatification of Gantin. ==See also==