Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Ouidah (Agenzia Fides) - Fifty years ago on 3 February 1957 Cardinal Bernardin Gantin was ordained a bishop having been appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese of Cotonou in Benin on 11 December 1956. To mark this important anniversary cardinals, archbishops and bishops, priests, religious and laity who met him during his long years of service to the local and universal Church will gather on Saturday 3 February for a special Mass in Ouidah, Benin, where the retired Cardinal has resided since 2002. Cardinal Gantin was the first African Bishop to assume major responsibilities in the Roman Curia, at the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace and Cor Unum, at the Congregation for Bishops, the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, in the College of Cardinals of which he was also Dean.
Special guests at the celebrations will include Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; Cardinal Renato R. Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the cardinals of Africa, about fifty archbishops and bishops, the members of the standing council of CERAO who arranged to hold a meeting in Cotonou in order to take part in the Jubilee Mass.
In an interview with Fides on 23 February 2001, Cardinal Gantin spoke of his experience in Rome and on the subject of mission: “Jesus Christ gives sense to our mission and our vocation. Alone I would be nothing. I was called to Rome 30 years ago. When the Pope speaks it is Christ who speaks. The missionaries who have been in our country for more than 100 years, said ‘yes’ to God, and they came from many different countries and from different local Churches and they said ‘yes’ to the Pope and to Christ, accepting to bring the Gospel to us. When for the first time the Pope asked an African to be a missionary to Rome, could his request be refused? I accepted out of obedience and service to the Pope and to Christ. I said ‘yes’ following the example of the first missionaries who accepted to come to evangelise us. For me, to be a Cardinal is not something of which I can boast, or of which my country can boast. It is simply a sign of the universality of the Church, the Catholicity of the Church: and for me this is what counts.”
In November 2004, in a comment Pope John Paul II’s Missionary Intention concerning holiness, (see Fides 28/10/2004) Cardinal Gantin wrote: “Undoubtedly the main ambition of a Christian is not to be beatified or canonised, but to be faithful, to be a person of faith in Christ, who renders Christ present and bears witnesses to him in every aspect and area of this earthly life. This is an obligation for the Christian “charged with mission”, for one who has received the command to proclaim the Gospel. He or she cannot forget that life bears fruit only if it is attached to Christ, like a branch to the vine.”
Biographical notes - Cardinal Bernardin Gantin was born on 8 May 1922 in Toffo, archdiocese of Cotonou, Benin. In 1936 he entered the minor seminary in Bénin. On 14 January 1951 he was ordained a priest in Lomé in Togo by Archbishop Louis Parisot and was chosen as a teacher of languages at the seminar. At the same time he dedicated himself intensely to pastoral work in a group of villages and from this experience acquired a great love for the pastoral apostolate. In 1953, leaving his heart in Africa, he was sent to Rome to study at the Pontifical Urban University and then at the Lateran. He received a licentiate in theology and in Canon Law. On 11 December 1956 he was elected titular Bishop of Tipasa of Mauritania and Auxiliary of Cotonou and was ordained on 3 February 1957. On 5 January 1960, John XXIII promoted him to Archbishop of Cotonou. He dedicated himself tirelessly to pastoral and missionary activity, he founded schools; vigorously supported the activity of catechists and of indigenous sisters; and, particularly concerned with the problem of priestly vocations, he underwent many sacrifices in order to maintain seminarians and priests of the diocese in their studies.
Pope Paul VI called him to Rome in April 1971 as the adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, of which he became the secretary two years later. From 1975 he was the Vice-President and then President of the Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace and also Vice-President and then President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (1976-1984). He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Paul VI in the consistory of 27 June 1977. President Delegate to the 5th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (1980). 8 April 1984 until 25 June 1998, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. 5 June 1993, Dean of the College of Cardinals. On 30 November 2002, John Paul II accepted Cardinal Gantin’s request to be dispensed from the Office of Dean of the College of Cardinals and of the title of the suburbicarian see of Ostia, allowing him to return to his homeland Benin.(S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 1/2/2007 - righe 56, parole 807)
