The Vatican is often likened to a nest of vipers, but Pope Francis has insisted that saints work there too.
As the pope said during an in-flight press conference in 2013, “There are saints in the curia. And there are some who are not so saintly, and these are the ones you tend to hear about.”
The Church has formally recognized the holiness of several senior Vatican officials. The Argentine Cardinal Eduardo Francisco Pironio, who led the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1984 to 1996, was beatified in 2023.
Vietnam’s Cardinal Nguyên Van Thuân, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 1998 to 2002, was declared venerable in 2017.
Soon, they could be joined by Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops from 1984 to 1998.
Who is Cardinal Gantin?
Bernardin Gantin was born on May 8, 1922, in the small West African state of Benin (then known as French Dahomey). According to his official Vatican biography, his surname meant “tree of iron.”
A railway worker’s son, he entered seminary at the age of 14 and was ordained a priest in 1951, at the age of 28.
After three years studying in Rome, Gantin was named an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Cotonou, the country’s most populous diocese. He was just 34. His principal consecrator was Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, the dean of the College of Cardinals. (In a neat bit of symmetry, Gantin would go on to serve as dean of the Sacred College).
In 1960, Gantin was named Archbishop of Cotonou. Taking over from his former teacher, the French missionary Archbishop Louis Parisot, Gantin made his mark on the archdiocese. He founded schools, supported catechists, and promoted priestly vocations.
In 1971, he was called to the Vatican, where he would serve until his retirement. He was initially adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In 1977, he was appointed president of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, becoming the first African to lead a major Vatican department.
Reflecting on his transition from Benin to Rome, Gantin told Agenzia Fides in 2001: “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 evangelize us.”
In 1984, Pope John Paul II asked Gantin to take charge of the Vatican dicastery overseeing bishops’ appointments — one of the most responsible roles in the Catholic Church.
(Gantin was mentioned three times in the 2020 McCarrick Report, which noted that a Catholic psychiatrist addressed a letter to him in 1997, detailing Theodore McCarrick’s sexual advances toward a seminarian. Gantin was no longer the Congregation for Bishops’ prefect when McCarrick was named Archbishop of Washington.)
Gantin was named dean of the College of Cardinals in 1993, holding the post until 2002, when he retired and returned to his homeland. He died in Paris in 2008, at the age of 86.
Such is the respect in which he is held in Benin — where a quarter of the population is Catholic — that the nation’s largest airport was named after him in 2021.
Why is his cause advancing?
When the Episcopal Conference of Lazio — a regional bishops’ institution covering Rome and surrounding areas — met Jan. 13, one of the items on its agenda was potential beatification causes.
The bishops declared they were in favor of Gantin’s cause (as well as that of layman Lorenzo Cuneo, who died in 1998 at the age of 28).
The bishops’ press release offered no rationale for their decision. But their vote clearly indicates they believe Gantin led an exceptionally holy life. His episcopal motto was In tuo sancto servitio (“In Your Holy Service”), underlining his commitment to sacrificial service.
As his biographer Fr. Augustin Yédia Tossou put it, “‘Crux, Hostia, Virgo’ [the Cross, the Host, and the Virgin] — these three words, full of meaning, always guided the life of Cardinal Gantin. He was truly a man of deep spirituality and constant prayer, eager to show everyone the path that leads to heaven.”
Why is the cause originating in Italy rather than Benin? Causes are normally launched in the diocese where a candidate died or spent a significant portion of their lives. Although Gantin died in Paris, he was a Vatican resident for decades.
Of course, the Lazio bishops’ announcement prompted jubilation in Benin.
Fr. Anicet Gnanvi, the communications director of the country’s bishops’ conference, said: “It is an immense joy for us to see the beatification process begin, and the news has generated a lot of enthusiasm here.”
But the advantages of opening the cause in Italy include proximity to the decision-making center of the Vatican and easier access to the resources necessary to promote a beatification candidate.
A launch in the Lazio region underlines that Gantin was not only a trailblazer for Africa, but also a man of the Universal Church, as seen in his Vatican service.
