Giovanni Battista Re

Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re (born January 30, 1934 in Borno) is an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church whose service has been primarily limited to the Roman Curia. He currently serves as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 2001.

Life

Born in Borno, Italy, and ordained a priest by Archbishop Giacinto Tredici in Brescia on 3 March 1957, Re has been a member of the Roman Curia since 1963. He elevated to monsignor the next year and served in various diplomatic positions before being named both bishop of the titular see of Forum Novum and Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops on 9 October 1987. Pope John Paul II administered the episcopal consecration on the following 7 November.

On 12 December 1989 he was transferred to become "Sostituto" for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, one of the key positions under the Cardinal Secretary of State. In this position he became known as one of the most influential men at the Vatican, though his position was of too low rank for him to be named a cardinal; there was unfounded speculation that he was one of the two men named secretly ("in pectore") as cardinals in the consistory of 1998.infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Giovanni Battista Re
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Sabina-Poggio Mirteto (Suburbicarian diocese)|He was named on 16 September 2000 to head the Congregation for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Re became Cardinal Priest of "Ss. XII Apostoli" in the consistory held 21 February, named first among all those elevated. The next year, on 1 October, he was named Cardinal Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto when a vacancy arose in that order. This is an unusually fast advancement for a cardinal but the head of the Congregation for Bishops is usually a Cardinal Bishop (and it was exceptional for a prelate not already a cardinal to be named Prefect of the Congregation).

Upon the death of John Paul all major Vatican officials automatically lose their positions during a sede vacante, and the cardinal so lost his position on April 2, 2005 due to the death of the Pope. He was later confirmed to office by Pope Benedict XVI on April 21. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI; Re himself was considered a "papabile" successor to John Paul.

Cardinal Re is a member of various offices of the Curia. In May 2008 Pope Benedict named Cardinal Re as a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Response to Stanisław Wielgus Scandal

Cardinal Re, who assists the Pope in deciding the future careers of the clergy as Prefect of Bishops, said that, "When Monsignor Wielgus was nominated, we did not know anything about his collaboration with the secret services" [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070108/wl_nm/poland_church_vatican_dc_1] .