Cardinal Gantin: The Makings Of An African Pope
Observers do not rule out this possibility which is enhanced by the appointment of the former Polish Cardinal as the first non-Italian Pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
This latest appointment is a further elevation for the Cardinal who as the President of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Commission was again the first African to head a department in the curia.
He considered the appointment made in December 1967 as a five year term after which he would like to return to Africa. But having already headed the only archdiocese in his country, and the fact that he could not be made archbishop in another African country, his stay in Rome was destined to be a long one. His latest appointment and with prospects of becoming the first African Pope, Cardinal Gantin is well advised to emulate the example of the current Pope who only pays periodic visits to his home country, Poland.
Born on 8th May, 1922 in Toffo, Benin, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, son of a railway worker, studied for the priesthood at the local seminary. He was ordained a priest on 14th January, 1951 after which he pursued post-ordination studies in Theology and Canon Law in Rome.
He was named auxiliary bishop of Cotonou in 1957 and four years later Pope John XXIII appointed him arch-bishop of the diocese (1960-1971). In 1971, he was called to Rome to be Associate Secretary (1971-1973) and Secretary (1973-1975) of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
Cardinal Gantin became Vice-President of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace (1975) and Commission President (1976). He is President also of the Pontifical Council for Unum, instituted by Pope Paul VI, to provide information and a coordinating service for Catholic aid and human development projects worldwide..
He was made a Cardinal on 27th June 1977 and later Pope John Paul II's personal representative to a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Development held in 1980.
The pride and honour which Cardinal Gantin's success should have bestowed on his country and Africa were temporarily blunted when in 1977 during a visit to Benin, the military and self professing Marxist government of President Mathieu Kerekou ordered him to refrain from travel and public appearances. This order came after the Cardinal had celebrated a mass for the victims of an armed conflict in the country earlier that year.
In 1982 however, Cardinal Gantin was called upon by the same government to play a leading role in the second African visit of Pope John Paul to Benin, Gabon and Nigeria following a most successful earlier visit to Ghana and Zaire in 1980.
