Roger Etchegaray

Roger Marie Élie Etchegaray (25 September 1922 – 4 September 2019) was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Jean Saint-Pierre on 13 July 1947.

Etchegaray then did pastoral work in the Diocese of Bayonne, also serving as secretary to Bishop Léon-Albert Terrier, secretary general of the diocesan works of Catholic Action, and as vicar general.

He then served as deputy director (1961–1966) and later secretary general (1966–1970) of the French Episcopal Conference.

On 29 March 1969, Etchegaray was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Paris and Titular Bishop of Gemellae in Numidia by Pope Paul VI.

He received his episcopal consecration on the following 27 May from Cardinal François Marty, with Cardinal Paul Gouyon and Bishop Władysław Rubin serving as co-consecrators, at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry.

Etchegaray served as the Archbishop of Marseille from 1970 to 1985 before entering the Roman Curia, where he served as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (1984–1998) and President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (1984–1995).

Etchegaray was named Archbishop of Marseille on 22 December 1970 and served until 1984, when he took up assignments in the Roman Curia.

He visited Eastern Europe on their behalf several times in the 1970s.

He was twice elected president of the Conference of French Bishops, serving from 1975 to 1981.

He was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1979, and was the longest-serving cardinal never to attend a papal conclave.

He served as papal representative in delicate situations.

He was made Cardinal-Priest of San Leone I by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of 30 June 1979.

In 1980 he became the first cardinal to visit China and visited again in 1993.

He improved the relations with the Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow.

On 8 April 1984, Pope John Paul II named him President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

In December 1985, he led a Vatican team invited by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to visit prisoners of war held in Iran.

He visited Baghdad in 1985 when he helped to arrange an exchange of prisoners of war between Iran and Iraq while they were at war.

Some were ecclesiastical, like improving relations with the Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, organizing an historic inter-religious prayer service in Assisi in 1986, and seeking rapprochement with Communist governments.

Others were geopolitical, attempting to prevent international violence, arranging an exchange of prisoners, or bearing witness to the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis.

Etchegaray, of Basque ancestry, was born in the Northern Basque Country to Jean-Baptiste and Aurélie Etchegaray.

The eldest of three children, he had two younger siblings, Jean and Maïté; their father worked as an agricultural mechanic.

All his life he spoke French with the accent of his native region.

He attended the minor seminary in Ustaritz and the major seminary in Bayonne before studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from where he obtained a Licentiate of Sacred Theology and a Doctorate of Canon Law.

He was a key organizer among others of the first World Day of Prayer for Peace that brought together more than 160 religious leaders in Assisi on 27 October 1986.

It was the broadest representation of international religious leaders ever assembled.

Etchegaray made his first trip to Cuba in 1989 and spent nine days there, between Christmas and New Year's Day.

His Cuban tour was capped by a meeting with Fidel Castro during Christmas week at which Etchegaray underlined the social contribution the Church provided to the Cuban health service, the pride of the Cuban regime.

The meeting underscored an easing of tensions between Church and state in the officially atheist country, where practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been objects of government repression for almost 30 years.

He first visited Rwanda in 1993 in an attempt to reconcile the warring parties.

In June 1994, amidst the violence of the Rwandan genocide, he visited the site where three bishops were assassinated and officiated at their funeral.

He held the first of those positions until 2 December 1995 and the other until 24 June 1998.

In Rome he lived in the Palazzo San Callisto, a Vatican property in Trastevere.

On 24 June 1998 he was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina.

In 1998, he visited Baghdad to determine if a papal visit was feasible.

Etchegaray was elected Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals and served from 30 April 2005

In 2006, the Catholic Church, again through Cardinal Etchegaray, gave the Greek Orthodox Church another relic of St. Andrew.

until 10 June 2017, when he was relieved from the duties of his position at his own request.

Popes Paul VI and John Paul II used Etchegaray as a diplomatic agent even when he was still Archbishop of Marseille and before he had Curial titles associated with human rights.