Roger Etchegaray

His Eminence Roger Etchegaray
President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Roger Etchegaray in Sarajevo, 2012
See	Porto-Santa Rufina
Appointed	8 April 1984
Term ended	24 June 1998
Predecessor	Bernardin Gantin
Successor	François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuán
Other posts	Cardinal-Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina Vice-Dean (Sub-Dean) of the College of Cardinals
Orders
Ordination	13 July 1947 by Jean Saint-Pierre
Consecration	27 May 1969 by Gabriel Auguste François Marty
Created Cardinal	30 June 1979
Rank	Cardinal-Bishop
Personal details
Birth name	Roger Marie Élie Etchegaray
Born	(1922-09-25) 25 September 1922 Espelette
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post	Auxiliary Bishop of Paris (1969-1970) Titular Bishop of Gemellae in Numidia (1969-1970) Archbishop of Marseille (1970-1985) Prelate of Mission de France o Pontigny (1975-1982) Cardinal-Priest of San Leone I (1979-1998) President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” (1984-1995)

Roger Marie Élie Etchegaray (French pronunciation: ​[ʁɔʒe ɛtʃɛɡaʁaj]; born 25 September 1922, in Espelette/Ezpeleta, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is a French cardinal of the Catholic Church (Roman Rite).

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). He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979.

Cardinal Etchegaray came to the attention of an international audience on Christmas Eve 2009 when he was seriously injured in an unsuccessful attack on Pope Benedict XVI as they processed into Mass at St Peter's Basilica. Etchegaray had to be hospitalised with broken bones.

Biography

Early life and ordination

Etchegaray, of Basque stock, was born in the Northern Basque Country to Jean-Batiste and Aurélie Etchegaray. The eldest of three children, he has two younger siblings, Jean and Maïté; their father worked as an agricultural mechanic.

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

Priest and Bishop

He 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 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.

Archbishop and Cardinal

Styles of Roger Etchegaray
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal

Etchegaray was the Archbishop of Marseille from 1970–1985, and was made Cardinal-Priest of S. Leone I by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of 1979. Cardinal Etchegaray was the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 1984–1998, and the President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum from 1984–1995. He first visited Baghdad in 1985 when he helped to arrange an exchange of prisoners of war between Iran and Iraq while they were at war. In 1998, he visited Baghdad to determine if a papal visit was feasible. On 24 June 1998, he was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina, and was elected Vice-Dean following the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

Etchegaray is the longest-serving cardinal to have never participated in a papal conclave. On 26 November 2008 he overtook in this respect Giacomo Antonelli, longtime cardinal secretary of state to Pope Pius IX, whose twenty-nine-year-long cardinalate was entirely during the thirty-one-year-long Pius IX pontificate. He turned eighty on 25 September 2002, becoming ineligible to enter a conclave to choose a pope, and so did not participate in the 2005 conclave, which elected Pope Benedict XVI, nor in the 2013 conclave, which elected Pope Francis.

Etchegaray still serves as Cardinal-Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina and Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Diplomatic roles

Cuba

Cardinal Etchegaray made his first trip to Cuba in 1989, and spent nine days there, between Christmas and the New Year’s Day. Cardinal Etchegaray’s Cuban tour was capped by an meeting with Fidel Castro during Christmas week. The meeting underscored an easing of tensions between Church and state in the officially atheist country, where practicing Christians and Jews have been objects of government repression for almost 30 years.^[1]

Catholic-Orthodox relations

The cross of Saint Andrew the apostle was presented to the Bishop of Patras Nicodemus by a Catholic delegation led by Etchegaray. All the relics, which consist of the small finger, the skull (part of the top of the cranium of Saint Andrew), and the cross on which he was martyred, have been kept in the Church of St. Andrew at Patras in a special shrine and are revered in a special ceremony every 30 November, his feast day.

In 2006, the Catholic Church, again through Cardinal Etchegaray, gave the Greek Orthodox Church another relic of St. Andrew.^[2]

U.S. invasion of Iraq

The Vatican opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and sent Cardinal Etchegaray as an envoy to persuade Iraqi authorities to cooperate with the United Nations in order to avoid war.^[3]

Honnours

• 2014 : knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.^[4]
• Commander in the National Order of Merit.^[5]
• knight Grand Cross in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.^[6]
• Knight Grand Cross in the National Order of Merit. ^[7]

Health

Injuries sustained during papal attack

On 24 December 2009, Cardinal Etchegaray was knocked down along with Pope Benedict XVI when 25-year-old Susanna Maiolo jumped over a barrier and grappled with the Pope as he processed through St Peter's Basilica for Christmas Eve mass. The Pontiff appeared to be unhurt, but Etchegaray suffered a broken leg and a broken hip in the process.^[8][9][10] He had been standing a few metres away from the Pope and was knocked down in the scuffle.^[11] The Vatican claimed Maiolo was "psychologically unstable" and had lunged at the Pope previously.^[12]

In 2015, Cardinal Etchegaray fell in St. Peter's Basilica during Mass and broke his leg for the second time.

References

External links

• Catholic-Hierarchy.org