page_title: Angelo Sodano
section_title: Secretary of State
hierarchical_section_title: Angelo Sodano / Secretary of State
context_page_description: Angelo Raffaele Sodano, GCC is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a Cardinal since 1991. He was the Dean of the College of Cardinals from 2005 to 2019, and Cardinal Secretary of State from 1991 to 2006; Sodano was the first person since 1828 to serve simultaneously as Dean and Secretary of State.
  On 22 June 2006, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Sodano's resignation as Secretary of State, effective on 15 September 2006. He had served in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See since 1959, including a decade as nuncio to Chile from 1978 to 1988.
  On 21 December 2019, the same day it was reported that he shielded sexually abusive clergy in the Legion of Christ, Pope Francis accepted Sodano's resignation as Dean of the College of Cardinals.
context_section_description: On 29 June 1991, Sodano became Cardinal Secretary of State, succeeding Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who had retired on 1 December 1990. On 10 January 1994, Pope John Paul II named Sodano Cardinal Bishop of the suburbicarian see of Albano. Sodano retained his relationship to the church of Santa Maria Nuova no longer as titular but in commendam, that is, in trust or in his custody.
  On 27 December 1998, he wrote, at the request of the democratic government of Chile, an official letter to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair stating that "the Chilean Government considers it an offence to its territorial sovereignty as a nation the fact of being deprived of the power to judge its own citizens" through the detention of Pinochet in Britain. When in 2002 Sodano turned 75, John Paul invited him to stay on as Secretary of State, though this is the customary retirement age for heads of major Vatican departments. On 30 November 2002, exactly twenty-five years after he was first appointed a bishop, he was elected vice-dean of the College of Cardinals, succeeding Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Dean. In 2003 Sodano drew attention by quite positively commemorating the 500th anniversary of the election the Renaissance Pope Julius II.
  When Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, Sodano, who participated in the 2005 papal conclave, was not generally seen as one of the papabili, the cardinals likely to become the next pope. This was largely due to his advanced age (although he was seven months younger than the cardinal who was eventually elected, Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI), and his lack of experience outside the Roman Curia. During the conclave, because Cardinal Ratzinger, the pope-elect, was the Dean, Sodano as the Sub-Dean exercised the duties normally allotted to the Dean in asking the pope-elect if he accepted his election and by what name he would be called. Also as the Sub-Dean and the most senior Cardinal-Bishop, Cardinal Sodano discharged the duties normally allotted to the Dean at the new pope's papal inauguration. At the papal inauguration, Sodano presented Pope Benedict XVI with the Ring of the Fisherman, and along with the protopriest Stephen Kim Sou-hwan and the protodeacon Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, was one of the three cardinals who made the public profession of obedience to the new pope.
  Sodano's position as Secretary of State expired upon the death of John Paul II. Benedict XVI reappointed him to the position on 21 April 2005, despite the fact that he was past the customary retirement age. On 30 April Benedict ratified Sodano's election to the position of Dean of the College of Cardinals by the suburbicarian Cardinal Bishops, adding as was customary the suburbicarian see of Ostia to his honorary titles.
  On 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI accepted Sodano's resignation as Secretary of State, effective 15 September 2006. On 18 September 2012, Sodano was named by Pope Benedict XVI as one of the Synod Fathers of the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Catholic Synod of Bishops.
  When Pope Benedict XVI resigned, Sodano as Dean of the College of Cardinals summoned the cardinals for the conclave during the sede vacante and was the principal concelebrant of the Pro eligendo Pontifice mass on the morning the conclave opened. He was not eligible to participate in the conclave, which elected Pope Francis. At the inauguration of the new pope, Sodano, as Dean of the College, presented the Ring of the Fisherman to Francis.
  On 21 December 2019, Pope Francis accepted Sodano's resignation as Dean of the College of Cardinals, following the Pope's annual Christmas meeting with officials of the Curia that opens with a greeting by the Dean. As Dean Emeritus, Sodano no longer has the title of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, which is reserved to the Dean.
caption: The two Secretaries of State: Cardinal Sodano (Secretary of State of the Holy See) with Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State of the U.S.)
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