Tarcisio Bertone

His dissertation was entitled The Governance of the Church in the Thought of Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758).

Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone (born 2 December 1934) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican diplomat.

Bertone professed his vows as a member of the Salesians on 3 December 1950 and was ordained a priest by Archbishop Albino Mensa on 1 July 1960.

He holds a doctorate in canon law.

He served as Professor of Special Moral Theology at the Pontifical Salesian University from 1967 until his appointment as Professor of Canon Law in 1976, a post he held until 1991.

Bertone was a visiting professor of Public Ecclesiastical Law at the Institute Utriusque Iuris of the Pontifical Lateran University in 1978.

He also assisted with the revision of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and undertook pastoral work in parishes.

On 4 July 1991, Bertone was appointed Archbishop of Vercelli by Pope John Paul II.

He was consecrated bishop one month later by Mensa, who had also ordained him priest.

He held this post until his resignation in 1995 upon being named Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

In the Jubilee Year 2000, Bertone was entrusted by John Paul II with the publication of the third secret of Fatima.

He was commissioned by Pope John Paul II to assist Emmanuel Milingo, Archbishop Emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia, in returning to the Catholic Church in 2001.

Milingo had left the church to marry Maria Sung of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

Appointed Archbishop of Genoa on 10 December 2002 and installed on 2 February 2003, Bertone was elevated to the College of Cardinals in the consistory of 21 October 2003, as Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Via Tuscolana.

He later specialized in the relationship between social morality, faith and politics.

A cardinal since 2003, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006, and as Cardinal Secretary of State from 2006 to 2013.

Bertone was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

On 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Bertone to replace Angelo Sodano as the Cardinal Secretary of State.

He assumed the office on 15 September.

On 26 June 2006 Bertone was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Complaints about Bertone's performance as secretary of state began early in his tenure.

He had no prior experience in the Vatican's diplomatic corps.

Two weeks before entering office, asked about reforms of the Roman Curia, Bertone remarked, "After almost two decades, an evaluation of how the dicasteries are organised is more than comprehensible, in order to reflect on how to make the existing structures more efficient for the mission of the Church and eventually to consider whether all of them should be maintained".

Bertone served as Camerlengo from 2007 to 2014.

On 4 April 2007, Benedict XVI appointed Bertone as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.

The duties of the camerlengo are largely confined to administration during the vacancy of the Holy See.

On 10 May 2008, he was named Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.

On 10 May 2008, he was promoted to the rank of Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.

In the period between Pope Benedict XVI's resignation on 28 February 2013 and the election of Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, he served temporarily as the administrator of the Holy See and acting head of state of the Vatican City State.

He was considered a contender to succeed Benedict XVI.

Besides his native Italian, Bertone speaks fluent French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

He has some knowledge of English, although he is not fluent, and he can read Polish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Bertone was born in Romano Canavese, Piedmont, the fifth of eight children.

Bertone has stated that his mother was a determined anti-fascist militant of the Italian People's Party, and later a Christian Democrat.

He also participated as a cardinal elector in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

When Pope Benedict XVI resigned on 28 February 2013, Bertone, as camerlengo, was the acting sovereign for Vatican City State and administrator for the Holy See until the election of a new pope.

On 13 February 2013, at the last public Mass of Pope Benedict XVI before his resignation took effect on 28 February, Bertone praised Pope Benedict, "We would not be honest, Your Holiness, if we said that this evening there is not a hint of sadness in our hearts. In recent years, your teaching has been a window open onto the Church and the world, which let in the rays of truth and love of God, to enlighten and warm our journey, even and especially at times when clouds gathered in the sky".

Bertone continued: "All of us have realized that it is precisely the deep love that Your Holiness has for God and the Church that prompted you to make this act, revealing that purity of mind, that strong and demanding faith, that strength of humility and meekness, along with great courage, that have marked every step of your life and your ministry".

Bertone was the second most senior cardinal-elector in order of precedence among the cardinal-electors who participated in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, after the presiding cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

Bertone himself was seen as a contender to succeed to the papacy, although his chances as a papabile were thought diminished by the perception that he was a "potential scandal in the making".