Agostino Casaroli

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Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli between Federal President Karl Carstens and Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher during the first visit of Pope John Paul II to Germany in 1980 in Bonn
Coat of arms of Agostino Cardinal Casaroli

Agostino Cardinal Casaroli (born November 24, 1914 in Castel San Giovanni , Province of Piacenza , Italy , † June 9, 1998 in Rome ) was Cardinal State Secretary of the Roman Catholic Church .

Life

Casaroli, son of a tailor, studied philosophy (until 1932) and theology (from 1932) in Piacenza from 1929 to 1936 . On May 27, 1937, he received the sacrament of ordination . In 1939 he was at the Pontifical Athenaeum Lateranense to Dr. iur. can. PhD . From 1940 he worked in the Vatican State Secretariat, initially in the archival service, from 1943 he also carried out pastoral activities in the Diocese of Rome. On January 4, 1945, Pope Pius XII awarded him . the honorary title of Surplus Secret Chamberlain of His Holiness ( Monsignor ). In 1950 Casaroli moved to the diplomatic service of the State Secretariat, where he was responsible for Latin America . Pius XII. awarded him the title of House Prelate of His Holiness on December 22, 1954 . In 1955 he took part in the first general assembly of the Latin American Bishops' Council as assistant to Adeodato Giovanni Piazza .

In March 1961, John XXIII appointed him . as Undersecretary of the "Holy Congregation for the Extraordinary Affairs of the Church" (from 1968: "Council for the Public Affairs of the Church"), whose secretary and thus a kind of foreign minister of the Holy See he became on July 4, 1967. Also on July 4, 1967, he was named titular archbishop of Cartagine . On July 16, 1967, Pope Paul VI donated to him . the Bishop ordination ; Co-consecrators were Bishop Augusto Gianfranceschi , Bishop of Cesena , and Jacques-Paul Martin , Titular Bishop of Neapolis in Palestine , Prefect of the Papal House .

John Paul II appointed him Pro-State Secretary (State Secretary without cardinal rank) on April 28, 1979 and accepted him on June 30 as a cardinal priest with the titular church of Santi XII Apostoli in the College of Cardinals . The very next day, July 1st, he was appointed Cardinal Secretary of State. In October 1981 Cardinal Casaroli was papal legate at the celebrations for the 700th birthday of St. Francis of Assisi , and in October 1984 he took part in the national Eucharistic Congress of Argentina .

On May 25, 1985 he became Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina .

Upon reaching the age limit, Casaroli resigned from all his offices on December 1, 1990. On June 5, 1993 he became a cardinal subdean . Five years later, Cardinal Casaroli died in Rome at the age of 83 after previously suffering from heart problems. He was buried in his former titular church, Santi XII Apostoli . After his death, the study center Associazione Centro Studi Cardinale Agostino Casaroli was founded in Bedonia on the initiative of his niece Orietta Casaroli Zanoni .

Agostino Casaroli is considered the architect of the Vatican Ostpolitik under John XXIII. and Paul VI. As a diplomat he was able to negotiate difficult agreements with anti-clerical or even atheist governments, for example in Yugoslavia and Hungary . However, he received harsh criticism for these treaties, which were interpreted by the oppressed Catholics of the Eastern bloc countries as an unnecessary willingness to compromise against a government persecuting the Church - for example the agreement with Hungary (1964), which led to the episcopal ordination of long-known secret agents of the Communist Party . Of the five episcopal ordinations after 1964, three candidates were already active as agents and another was in the candidacy stage.

Honors

literature

  • Roland Cerny-Werner: Vatican Ostpolitik and the GDR. Göttingen 2011, ISBN 9783899718751 .

Web links

Commons : Agostino Casaroli  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 1953 , Città del Vaticano 1953, p. 1131.
  2. ↑ Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 1964 , Città del Vaticano 1964, p. 1134.
  3. ^ Krisztián Ungváry: The Kádár Regime and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. ( Memento of February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Hungarianquarterly.com, accessed on August 21, 2010
  4. ↑ a b List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
predecessor Office successor
Jean-Marie Cardinal Villot Cardinal Secretary of State
1979–1990 		Angelo Cardinal Sodano
Giuseppe Cardinal Caprio Prefect of the property administration of the Apostolic See
1981–1989 		Rosalio Cardinal Lara SDB
Cardinal Paolo Marella Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina
1985–1998 		Roger Cardinal Etchegaray
Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio Cardinal Sub- Dean
1993–1998 		Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
personal data
SURNAME Casaroli, Agostino
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Casaroli, Cardinal Agostino (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Cardinal Curia and Cardinal Secretary of State
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Castel San Giovanni , Province of Piacenza, Italy
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1998
Place of death Rome