Vatican cardinals recall Cardinal Gantin with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))

Seven cardinals gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica to offer a Mass for the repose of the soul of Cardinal Bernardin Gantin (1922-2008), 100 years after the prelate’s birth.

One of the most influential prelates during Pope St. John Paul II’s reign, Cardinal Gantin, who hailed from the West African nation of Benin, was Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (1984-1998) and Dean of the College of Cardinals (1993-2002).

The current Dean, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, noted that his predecessor, at age 80, chose to “return to his people in Benin, where he was born, and resume the evangelizing activity that he had started the day of priestly ordination ... Cardinal Gantin was an unforgettable spiritual guide because in his life there was always coherence between what he said, what he thought, and what he did.”

Cardinals Leonardo Sandri, Francis Arinze, Marc Ouellet, Peter Turkson, Robert Sarah, and Luis Antonio Tagle concelebrated the Mass.