1.
Pope Paul VI
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Pope Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, reigned as Pope from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. Montini served in the Vaticans Secretariat of State from 1922 to 1954, Montini later became the Secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference. John XXIII elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 1958, upon his election to the papacy, Montini took the name Paul VI. He re-convened the Second Vatican Council, which was closed with the death of John XXIII. The magnitude and depth of the reforms affecting all fields of Church life during his pontificate exceeded similar reform policies of his predecessors and successors, Paul VI was a Marian devotee, speaking repeatedly to Marian congresses and mariological meetings, visiting Marian shrines and issuing three Marian encyclicals. Following his famous predecessor Saint Ambrose of Milan, he named Mary as the Mother of the Church during the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI sought dialogue with the world, with other Christians, other religions, and atheists, excluding nobody. He saw himself as a servant for a suffering humanity and demanded significant changes of the rich in North America. His positions on birth control, promulgated most famously in the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae, Pope Benedict XVI declared that the late pontiff lived a life of heroic virtue and conferred the title of Venerable upon him. Pope Francis beatified him on 19 October 2014 after the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession and his liturgical feast is celebrated on the date of his birth on 26 September. Giovanni Battista Montini was born in the village of Concesio, in the province of Brescia and his father Giorgio Montini was a lawyer, journalist, director of the Catholic Action and member of the Italian Parliament. His mother was Giudetta Alghisi, from a family of rural nobility and he had two brothers, Francesco Montini, who became a physician, and Lodovico Montini, who became a lawyer and politician. On 30 September 1897, he was baptized in the name of Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini and he attended Cesare Arici, a school run by the Jesuits, and in 1916, he received a diploma from Arnaldo da Brescia, a public school in Brescia. His education was interrupted by bouts of illness. In 1916, he entered the seminary to become a Roman Catholic priest and he was ordained priest on 29 May 1920 in Brescia and celebrated his first Holy Mass in Brescia in the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Montini concluded his studies in Milan with a doctorate in Canon Law in the same year, afterwards he studied at the Gregorian University, the University of Rome La Sapienza and, at the request of Giuseppe Pizzardo at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici. Consequently, he spent not a day as a parish priest, in 1925 he helped found the publishing house Morcelliana in Brescia, focused on promoting a Christian inspired culture. Montini had just one posting in the service of the Holy See as Secretary in office of the papal nuncio to Poland in 1923. Of the nationalism he experienced there he worte, This form of nationalism treats foreigners as enemies, then one seeks the expansion of ones own country at the expense of the immediate neighbours
2.
Pope Francis
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Pope Francis is the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City. He chose Francis as his name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked briefly as a chemical technologist and he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentinas provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and he led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina, and the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on Gods mercy, concern for the poor, populist causes and commitment to interfaith dialogue. He maintains that the church should be open and welcoming. He does not support unbridled capitalism, Marxism, or Marxist versions of liberation theology, Francis maintains the traditional views of the church regarding abortion, euthanasia, contraception, homosexuality, ordination of women, and priestly celibacy. He opposes consumerism, irresponsible development, and supports taking action on climate change, in international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on 17 December 1936 in Flores and he was the eldest of five children of Mario José Bergoglio and Regina María Sívori. Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro in Italys Piedmont region, Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian origin. Mario Josés family left Italy in 1929, to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini, María Elena Bergoglio, the Popes only living sibling, confirmed that their emigration was not for economic reasons. His other siblings were Alberto Horacio, Oscar Adrián and Marta Regina, two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision. In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles and he attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N°27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a past President of Argentina, and graduated with a chemical technicians diploma. He worked for a few years in that capacity in the section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory where his boss was Esther Ballestrino. Before joining the Jesuits, Bergoglio worked as a bar bouncer and as a janitor sweeping floors, in the only known health crisis of his youth, at the age of 21 he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts. He had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards, Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro football club. Bergoglio is also a fan of the films of Tita Merello, neorealism, Bergoglio found his vocation to the priesthood while he was on his way to celebrate the Spring Day. He passed by a church to go to confession, and was inspired by the priest
3.
Mauretania
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Mauretania is the Latin name for an area of the ancient Maghreb stretching from central Algeria westwards to the atlantic, covering northern Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, seminomadic pastoralists of Berber stock, were known to the Romans as the Mauri, in the late 3rd century, another province, Mauretania Sitifensis, was formed out of the eastern part of Caesariensis. When the Vandals arrived in Africa in 429, much of Mauretania became virtually independent, christianity had spread rapidly there in the 4th and 5th centuries but was extinguished when the Arabs conquered the region in the 7th century. Mauretania existed as a kingdom of the Mauri people. Mauri is recorded as the name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was Maurusii, the Mauri would later bequeath their name to the Moors on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, from at least the 3rd century BC. King Atlas was a king of Mauretania credited with the invention of the celestial globe. The first known king of the Mauri is Baga, who ruled during the Second Punic War. The Mauri were in contact with Numidia. Bocchus I was father-in-law to the redoubted Numidian king Jugurtha, Mauretania became a client kingdom of the Roman Empire in 33 BC. The Romans installed Juba II of Numidia as their client-king, when Juba died in AD23, his Roman-educated son Ptolemy of Mauretania succeeded him. The Emperor Caligula had Ptolemy executed in 40, Emperor Claudius annexed Mauretania directly as a Roman province in 44, under an imperial governor. Mauretania Caesariensis was named after its capital Caesarea and comprised western, Mauretania gave the empire one emperor, the equestrian Macrinus. He seized power after the assassination of Caracalla in 217, but was defeated and executed by Elagabalus the next year. Emperor Diocletians Tetrarchy reform further divided the area into three provinces, as the small, easternmost region of Sitifensis was split off from Mauretania Caesariensis, followed by Columnatensis, Vidensis, inferioris, Fortensis, Muticitani, Audiensis, Caputcellensis and Augustensis. A Praeses in the province of Mauretania Sitifensis, direct Roman rule became confined to a few coastal cities by the late 3rd century. In an inscription from Altava in western Algeria, one of these rulers, Masuna, Altava was later the capital of another ruler, Garmul or Garmules, who resisted Byzantine rule in Africa but was finally defeated in 578. The Byzantine historian Procopius also mentions another independent ruler, Mastigas, in the VII century there were eight Romano-Moorish kingdoms, Altava, Ouarsenis, Hodna, Aures, Nemenchas, Capsa, Dorsale and Cabaon
4.
Roman Curia
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The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central body through which the Roman Pontiff conducts the affairs of the universal Catholic Church. The Roman Curia instead aids the Pope in the exercise of his primacy over all the Churches, Curia in medieval and later Latin usage means court in the sense of royal court rather than court of law. The Roman Curia is sometimes anglicized as the Court of Rome and it is the papal court and assists the Pope in carrying out his functions. It is normal for every Latin Catholic diocese to have its own curia for its administration, a distinct office, the Vicar General for Vatican City, administers the portion of the Diocese of Rome in Vatican City. Until recently, there still existed hereditary officers of the Roman Curia, a reorganization, ordered by Pope Pius X, was incorporated into the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Further steps toward reorganization were begun by Pope Paul VI in the 1960s, among the goals of this curial reform were the modernization of procedures and the internationalization of the curial staff. These reforms are reflected in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the offices of the Vatican City State are not part of the Roman Curia, which is composed only of offices of the Holy See. The following organs or charges, according to the website of the Holy See. All members of the Curia except the Cardinal Camerlengo and the Major Penitentiary resign their office immediately after a death or resignation. The principal departments of the Roman Curia are called dicasteries and those remain the five principal categories of departments, with the noteworthy change in that there is now more than a single Secretariate. Both are headed by a prefect, the Secretariat of State is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the government of the Roman Catholic Church. It is headed by the Secretary of State, since 15 October 2013 Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretariat is divided into two sections, the Section for General Affairs and the Section for Relations with States, known as the First Section and Second Section, respectively. The Secretariat of State was created in the 15th century and is now the department of the curia most involved in coordinating the Holy Sees activities, named the first Prefect of the Secretariat was Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viganò, formerly the Director of the Vatican Television Center. Two departments of the Roman Curia established by Pope Francis in 2016 have been identified as dicasteries rather than as one of the traditional department types, Pope Francis announced on 15 August 2016 the creation of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, effective 1 September 2016. It took over the responsibilities of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and he named Cardinal Peter Turkson its first prefect. Combining the work of four Pontifical Councils established following the Second Vatican Council, the Pope announced that temporarily he would personally direct the departments work on behalf of migrants and refugees. The Roman Congregations are a type of dicastery of the Roman Curia, each Congregation is led by a prefect, who is a cardinal. Among the most active of these major Curial departments, it oversees Catholic doctrine and its most familiar name for most of its history was the Holy Office of the Inquisition
5.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Pope Benedict XVI reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He was elected pope on 19 April 2005, was inaugurated on 24 April 2005, Benedicts election occurred in a papal conclave following the death of Pope John Paul II. Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger established himself as a highly regarded university theologian by the late 1950s and was appointed a professor in 1958. In 1981, he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from 2002 until his election as Pope, he was also Dean of the College of Cardinals. He was originally a liberal theologian, but adopted conservative views after 1968 and his prolific writings defend traditional Catholic doctrine and values. During his papacy, Benedict XVI advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increased secularisation of many Western countries and he views relativisms denial of objective truth, and the denial of moral truths in particular, as the central problem of the 21st century. He taught the importance of both the Catholic Church and an understanding of Gods redemptive love, Pope Benedict also revived a number of traditions, including elevating the Tridentine Mass to a more prominent position. He strengthened the relationship between the Catholic Church and art, promoted the use of Latin, and reintroduced traditional papal garments and he has been described as the main intellectual force in the Church since the mid-1980s. On 11 February 2013, Benedict announced his resignation in a speech in Latin before the cardinals, citing a lack of strength of mind and his resignation became effective on 28 February 2013. He is the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, as pope emeritus, Benedict retains the style of His Holiness, and the title of Pope, and continues to dress in the papal colour of white. He was succeeded by Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, in his retirement, Benedict XVI has made occasional public appearances alongside Pope Francis. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born on 16 April, Holy Saturday,1927, at Schulstraße 11, at 8,30 in the morning in his parents home in Marktl, Bavaria and he was baptised the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger, Sr. a police officer and his mothers family was originally from South Tyrol. Pope Benedict XVIs brother, Georg Ratzinger, a priest and former director of the Regensburger Domspatzen choir, is still alive and his sister, Maria Ratzinger, who never married, managed Cardinal Ratzingers household until her death in 1991. Their grand-uncle was the German politician Georg Ratzinger, at the age of five, Ratzinger was in a group of children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal Archbishop of Munich with flowers. Struck by the distinctive garb, he later announced the very same day that he wanted to be a cardinal. He attended the school in Aschau am Inn, which was renamed in his honour in 2009. Ratzingers family, especially his father, bitterly resented the Nazis, in 1941, one of Ratzingers cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and murdered during the Action T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics
6.
Stations of the Cross
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Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as Way of Sorrows or Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imitations of Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which is believed to be the actual path Jesus walked to Mount Calvary, the object of the stations is to help the Christian faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of the Passion of Christ. This will be individually or in a procession most commonly during Lent, especially on Good Friday, in a spirit of reparation for the sufferings. The style, form, and placement of the stations vary widely, the typical stations are small plaques with reliefs or paintings placed around a church nave. Modern minimalist stations can be simple crosses with a numeral in the centre, occasionally the faithful might say the stations of the cross without there being any image, such as when the pope leads the stations of the cross around the Colosseum in Rome on Good Friday. The older stations can be a series of chapels in a landscape, known as a Calvary. Examples include Sacred Mount Calvary in Italy, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska in Poland, Via Crucis of Valinhos, Fátima, in Portugal, the Stations of the Cross originated in pilgrimages to Jerusalem and a desire to reproduce Via Dolorosa. Imitating holy places was not a new concept, for example, the religious complex of Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, replicated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other religious sites, including Mount of Olives and Valley of Josaphat. After the siege of 1187, Jerusalem fell to Muslims, forty years later Franciscans were allowed back into the Holy Land. Their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, held the Passion of Christ in special veneration and was the first person to receive stigmata, in 1217, St. Francis also founded the Custody of the Holy Land to guard and promote the devotion to holy places. Their efforts were recognized when Franciscans were officially proclaimed custodians of holy places by Pope Clement VI in 1342, in 1521, a book called Geystlich Strass was printed with illustrations of the stations in the Holy Land. During the 15th and 16th centuries the Franciscans began to build a series of shrines in Europe to duplicate their counterparts in the Holy Land. The number of stations varied between seven and thirty, seven was common and these were usually placed, often in small buildings, along the approach to a church, as in a set of 1490 by Adam Kraft, leading to the Johanneskirche in Nuremberg. A number of examples were established as attractions in their own right. In these the sculptures are often approaching life-size and very elaborate, remnants of these are often referred to as calvary hills. In 1686, in answer to their petition, Pope Innocent XI granted to the Franciscans the right to erect stations within their churches. In 1731, Pope Clement XII extended to all churches the right to have the stations, provided that a Franciscan father erected them, at the same time the number was fixed at fourteen. The early set of seven scenes was usually numbers 2,3,4,6,7,11, out of the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross, only eight have clear scriptural foundation
7.
Colosseum
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The Colosseum or Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. Built of concrete and sand, it is the largest amphitheatre ever built, the Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in AD72, and was completed in AD80 under his successor, further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian. These three emperors are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named in Latin for its association with their family name, the building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry. Although partially ruined because of damage caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin. The Colosseums original Latin name was Amphitheatrum Flavium, often anglicized as Flavian Amphitheatre, the building was constructed by emperors of the Flavian dynasty, following the reign of Nero. This name is used in modern English, but generally the structure is better known as the Colosseum. The name Colosseum has long believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby. This statue was later remodeled by Neros successors into the likeness of Helios or Apollo, Neros head was also replaced several times with the heads of succeeding emperors. Despite its pagan links, the statue remained standing well into the era and was credited with magical powers. It came to be seen as an symbol of the permanence of Rome. This is often mistranslated to refer to the Colosseum rather than the Colossus, however, at the time that the Pseudo-Bede wrote, the masculine noun coliseus was applied to the statue rather than to what was still known as the Flavian amphitheatre. The Colossus did eventually fall, possibly being pulled down to reuse its bronze, by the year 1000 the name Colosseum had been coined to refer to the amphitheatre. The statue itself was forgotten and only its base survives. The name further evolved to Coliseum during the Middle Ages, in Italy, the amphitheatre is still known as il Colosseo, and other Romance languages have come to use similar forms such as Coloseumul, le Colisée, el Coliseo and o Coliseu. The site chosen was an area on the floor of a low valley between the Caelian, Esquiline and Palatine Hills, through which a canalised stream ran. By the 2nd century BC the area was densely inhabited and it was devastated by the Great Fire of Rome in AD64, following which Nero seized much of the area to add to his personal domain
8.
The Times
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The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London, England. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967 and its news and its editorial comment have in general been carefully coordinated, and have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain. To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in touch with 10 Downing Street. In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope, in November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, the Sunday Times remains a broadsheet. The Times had a daily circulation of 446,164 in December 2016, in the same period. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006 and it has been heavily used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he was working went bankrupt because of the complaints of a Jamaican hurricane. Being unemployed, Walter decided to set a new business up and it was in that time when Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was faster and more precise. Walter bought the patent and to use it, he decided to open a printing house. The first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785, unhappy because people always omitted the word Universal, Ellias changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name, the Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its life, the profits of The Times were very large. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig, in 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed editor in 1817
9.
Saronno
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Saronno is a comune of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Varese. It received the title of city with a presidential decree in 1960. The place is known for its almond kernel biscuits and liqueur. The pilgrimage church of the Madonna dei Miracoli, begun in 1498 by Vincenzo DellOrto, has a dome with very fine architecture on the outside, the bell tower dates from 1516, the rest of the church is of a later date. Internally it is decorated with frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari, representing The Concert of Angels. These include the Adoration of the Magi, The Presentation, The Marriage of the Virgin, most likely Luini started these frescoes in the spring of 1524. The Church of St. Francis is the oldest church in Saronno and it was a small church outside the walls. There are no traces of this church today because in the 15th century radical changes and it was during these changes that the lavish decorations that we see today were added. The church has a nave with side aisles. The chancel and high altar is at one end of the nave, the side aisles are lined with richly decorated chapels. The facade is baroque but the roof is a sign of its medieval origins. There are two niches on the facade containing statues, one of St. Anthony and the other of St. Francis and these statues are copies but the originals can be seen in one of the chapels inside the church. The museum is dedicated to the collection of 18th-century ceramics gathered by the late Giuseppe Gianetti since 1933, side by side Giuseppe Gianetti’s collection, the museum now displays a new section on contemporary works of art made by local and national artists who mainly work with ceramic materials. It has frescoes by Stefano Maria Legnani, Church of St. Anthony, known since 1385. Saronno railway station is an important junction of the Ferrovienord railway network and this railway has frequent trains from Milan to Como, to Varese, to Novara and to Malpensa Airport. It is also served by the suburban lines S1, S3, Saronno Sud railway station is another Ferrovienord station in the southern suburbs of the town, only served by the suburban lines. Saronno is home to the Saronno Comets, the first Italian tchoukball club, their team, Saronno Castor, won 7 of the 9 championships played so far in Italy. Saronno is twinned with, Challans, France Pegognaga, Italy This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
10.
Angelo Sodano
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Angelo Raffaele Sodano is an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who has served as Dean of the College of Cardinals since 2005. He was Cardinal Secretary of State from 1991 to 2006, under both popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, on 27 April 2005, he was elected to succeed Benedict XVI as Dean of the College of Cardinals by his fellow Cardinal Bishops. Sodano was the first person since 1828 to serve simultaneously as Dean, on 22 June 2006, Benedict XVI accepted Sodanos resignation as Secretary of State, effective on 15 September 2006. He was succeeded by Tarcisio Bertone, then Archbishop of Genoa, the second of six children, Angelo Sodano was born in Isola dAsti, Piedmont, to Giovanni and Delfina Sodano. His father was a Christian Democrat deputy in the Italian Parliament for three terms from 1948 until 1963, in 1959 he entered the diplomatic corps of the Holy See. He served as secretary in nunciatures in Latin America, and was given the title of monsignor, initially with the rank of Chaplain of His Holiness, in 1968 he was called to work in the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church in the Vatican. He was consecrated in his native Asti by Cardinal Antonio Samoré on 15 January 1978 and he arrived at a difficult moment, with Chile on the brink of war with Argentina over the Beagle Channel and Augusto Pinochet in power. On the other hand, Sodano arranged a meeting in the nunciature between the Pope and the leaders of the opposition, seven Chilean priests then wrote to the Pope to have Sodano removed from his post as Nuncio. Maria Nuova on 28 June 1991, on 29 June 1991, Angelo Sodano became Cardinal Secretary of State succeeding Cardinal Agostino Casaroli who had retired back on 1 December 1990. On 10 January 1994, Pope John Paul II named Sodano Cardinal Bishop of the see of Albano. Sodano however retained in commendam the cardinal-priest title to the church of Santa Maria Nuova. Due to the health of John Paul II, it was Cardinal Sodano, as Secretary of State. When in 2002 Sodano turned 75, John Paul specifically invited him to stay on as Secretary of State, though this is the customary retirement age for heads of major Vatican departments. On 30 November 2002, exactly twenty-five years after he was first appointed a bishop, he was elected vice-dean of the College of Cardinals in succession to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Dean. When Pope John Paul II died on 2 April 2005, Sodano, who participated in the 2005 papal conclave, was not generally seen as one of the papabili and this was largely due to his advanced age, and his lack of experience outside the Roman Curia. Also as the Sub-Dean and the most senior Cardinal-Bishop, Cardinal Sodano discharged the duties normally allotted to the Dean at the new popes papal inauguration, Sodanos position as Secretary of State expired upon the death of John Paul II. But Benedict XVI reappointed him to the position on 21 April 2005, on 30 April Benedict formally ratified Sodanos election to the position of Dean of the College of Cardinals by the suburbicarian Cardinal Bishops. Accordingly, the title of the see of Ostia, proper of the dean, was added to the title of the see of Albano
