Jean-Marie Villot

infobox cardinalbiog
name = Jean-Marie Cardinal Villot †


See = Lyon (Emeritus)
Title = Cardinal Secretary of State
Period = May 2, 1969—March 9, 1979
cardinal = February 22, 1965
Predecessor = Amleto Cardinal Cicognani †
Successor = Agostino Cardinal Casaroli †
post = Prefect of the Congregation for Council
date of birth = October 11, 1905
place of birth = Saint-Amant-Tallende, Clermont-Ferrand, France
date of death = March 9, 1979
place of death = Vatican City

Jean-Marie Cardinal Villot (October 11, 1905—March 9, 1979) was a French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Lyon from 1965 to 1967, Prefect of the Congregation for Council from 1967 to 1969, Vatican Secretary of State from 1969 to 1979, and Chamberlain of the Roman Church (or Camerlengo) from 1970 to 1979. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Early life

He was born in Saint-Amant-Tallende, Clermont-Ferrand, to Joseph and Marie (née Laville) Villot; he was an only child. Before serving in the military until August 2, 1924, he studied for the priesthood in Riom, Clermont, and Lyon. He became a Marist novice on September 7, 1925, but left the order three months later in December. Villot went on to study at the Catholic Institute of Paris and the Pontifical Athenaeum "Angelicum" in Rome (where he earned a licentiate in canon law and a doctorate in theology).

Priesthood

He was ordained a priest on April 19, 1930, by Archbishop Alfred-Henri-Marie Baudrillart. Villot was then incardinated into the Archdiocese of Paris, and from 1931 to 1934 he served as secretary to Pierre-Marie Gerlier, bishop of Tarbes-et-Lourdes. He taught at the Clermont seminary and the Catholic University of Lyon, becoming vice-rector of the latter in 1942 and holding the post for the next eight years. Working in the French Episcopal Conference in the early 1950s, Villot was appointed auxiliary bishop of Paris and titular bishop of "Vinda" on September 2, 1954. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 12 from Maurice Cardinal Feltin, with Archbishop Emile Guerry of Cambrai and Bishop Pierre de la Chanonie of Clermont as co-consecrators.

Bishop and Cardinal

On December 17, 1959, Villot was promoted to Coadjutor Archbishop of Lyon and titular archbishop of "Bosporus". During the Second Vatican Council, he served as the Council's Undersecretary. He later succeeded Cardinal Gerlier as Archbishop of Lyon on January 17, 1965, and in the next month, was created Cardinal Priest of "SS. Trinità al Monte Pincio" by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of February 22. He was named Prefect of the Congregation for Council (later renamed the Congregation for the Clergy) in the Roman Curia on April 7, 1967, and he would henceforth play a very prominent role in the reign of Paul VI, being named Cardinal Secretary of State on May 2, 1969. Villot was named Chamberlain of the Roman Church, also known as the Camerlengo, on October 16, 1970.infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Jean-Marie Cardinal Villot
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
relstyle=Monsignor
See=Lyon
deathstyle=|On July 15, 1971, he was appointed President of the newly-formed Pontifical Council "Cor Unum". It was a position he held until September 4, 1978, when he resigned from it during the pontificate of Pope John Paul I.

Elevated to Cardinal Bishop of Frascati on December 12, 1974, Villot remained Secretary of State for the remainder of Paul VI's reign, and was remained in that same capacity under both John Paul I and John Paul II, although there is some speculation that he might have been slated for replacement by John Paul I had the Pope reigned longer.

Villot participated as a cardinal elector in both the August and October conclaves of 1978, which selected John Paul I and John Paul II respectively. In his capacity of Camerlengo, he served as the interim administrator of the Vatican between Paul's death and John Paul I's election, and then between John Paul I's death and John Paul II's election.

He died from bronchial pneumonia at 9:25 p.m. on March 9, 1979, in his Vatican City apartment, at age 73. John Paul II celebrated his funeral Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on the following March 13, and his remains were buried in the crypt of "Ss. Trinità al Monte Pincio".

Trivia

* Malachi Martin's book "Vatican: a novel", other writers and followers of Veronica Lueken maintain that Cardinal Villot was heavily involved in the alleged assassination of Pope John Paul I, if not the Pope's actual killer.

* In July 1976 the newsletter "Bulletin de l'Occident Chrétien" claimed that Cardinal Villot himself, among other high-ranking Church officials, was a member of the Freemasons, being enrolled in Zürich on August 6, 1966, with the Masonic code name of "Jeanni".

External links

* [http://catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bvillot.html Catholic Hierarchy]
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-v.htm Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church]