VATICAN CITY — French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, an experienced
diplomat and head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, died
at the age of 75 in Hartford, Conn., where he was receiving medical treatment.
The cardinal, who had been living with Parkinson's disease, led a
Vatican delegation to Saudi Arabia in April.
But it was his role as "proto-deacon" or top-ranking
cardinal deacon in 2013, that put him more squarely in the spotlight, appearing
at the basilica balcony to announce to the world, "Habemus
papam," "We have a pope."
In a telegram to the cardinal's sister, Pope Francis extended his
condolences and praised the cardinal's "sense of service and his love for
the church."
Cardinal Tauran left a deep and lasting mark on the church, the
pope said, noting the great trust and esteem in which he was held, particularly
by Muslims.
"I have fond memories of this man of profound faith who
courageously served the church of Christ to the end, despite the weight of
disease," he wrote.
Born in Bordeaux, France, April 5, 1943, the cardinal was
ordained to the priesthood in 1969 and entered the Vatican's diplomatic service
in 1975. He worked in apostolic nunciatures in the Dominican Republic and
Lebanon from 1975 to 1983. He was a representative to the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe from 1983 to 1988, pressing the Vatican's
position on human rights at a time when the Soviet-bloc regimes of Eastern
Europe were weakening.
He was called to work in the Secretariat of State, first named
undersecretary for relations with states in 1988, then secretary of the
department in 1990. For the next 13 years, he was St. John Paul II's
"foreign minister," the official who dealt with all aspects of the
Vatican's foreign policy.
Most of his work has been behind the scenes, with daily
unpublicized meetings with diplomats accredited to the Holy See and with
visiting dignitaries. But sometimes he was called upon to express Vatican
positions more openly — on war and peace, on the Holy Land or on the rights of
minority Catholic communities.
St. John Paul ordained him an archbishop in January 1991 and
elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 2003, soon after making him head of
the Vatican Library and the Vatican Secret Archives.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI then named him president of Pontifical
Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the office overseeing the Vatican's
dialogue efforts with representatives of other faiths, including Islam. The
pope had placed the interreligious council under the wing of the Pontifical
Council for Culture in 2006 but, with Cardinal Tauran's appointment, he
returned the office to its previous autonomy and high profile.
Addressing a conference on Muslim-Christian dialogue in Qatar in
2004, Cardinal Tauran told participants that political leaders have nothing to
fear from true religious believers.
"Believers who are recognized and respected for who they are
will be more inclined to work together for a society of which they are full
members," he said.
He once told diplomats that the reason then-Pope John Paul made
so many pronouncements against world conflicts and wars was not in an attempt
to get involved in politics, "but to show men and women the correct path,
to revive their consciences, to highlight rights and the commitments made to
them, and to repeat with new words the Gospel beatitude: 'Blessed are the
peacemakers.'"
His death leaves the College of Cardinals with 225 members, 124
of whom are under 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.