Roger Etchegaray

Etchegaray, of Basque ancestry,[1] was born in the Northern Basque Country to Jean-Baptiste and Aurélie Etchegaray. The eldest of three children, he had two younger siblings, Jean and Maïté; their father worked as an agricultural mechanic.[2] All his life he spoke French with the accent of his native region.[3]

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.[2]

Etchegaray 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 as vicar general. He then served as deputy director (1961–1966) and later secretary general (1966–1970) of the French Episcopal Conference.[4]

On 29 March 1969, Etchegaray was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Paris and Titular Bishop of Gemellae in Numidia by Pope Paul VI.[2] 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.

After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry.[5]

Styles of Roger Etchegaray
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Porto-Santa Rufina (suburbicarian)

Etchegaray was named Archbishop of Marseille on 22 December 1970[6] and served until 1984, when he took up assignments in the Roman Curia. He was twice elected president of the Conference of French Bishops, serving from 1975 to 1981.[7] On 8 April 1984, Pope John Paul II named him President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.[8] He held the first of those positions until 2 December 1995 and the other until 24 June 1998. In Rome he lived in the Palazzo San Callisto, a Vatican property in Trastevere.[3]

He was made Cardinal-Priest of San Leone I by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of 30 June 1979. On 24 June 1998 he was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina. Etchegaray was elected Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals and served from 30 April 2005[9] until 10 June 2017, when he was relieved from the duties of his position at his own request.[10]

Etchegaray made his first trip to Cuba in 1989 and spent nine days there, between Christmas and New Year's Day. His Cuban tour was capped by a meeting with Fidel Castro during Christmas week at which Etchegaray underlined the social contribution the Church provided to the Cuban health service, the pride of the Cuban regime.[14]

The meeting underscored an easing of tensions between Church and state in the officially atheist country, where practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been objects of government repression for almost 30 years.[15]

In 2006, the Catholic Church, again through Cardinal Etchegaray, gave the Greek Orthodox Church another relic of St. Andrew.[16]

In December 1985, he led a Vatican team invited by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to visit prisoners of war held in Iran.[17] He 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.[7]

He first visited Rwanda in 1993 in an attempt to reconcile the warring parties.[18] In June 1994, amidst the violence of the Rwandan genocide, he visited the site where three bishops were assassinated and officiated at their funeral. He crossed the country to deliver the same message to the government and its rebel opposition.[19][20]

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.[21][22]

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, who was making his way through St Peter's Basilica in procession for Christmas Eve Mass. The Pope was not injured, but Etchegaray suffered a broken leg and a broken hip.[25][26][27] He had been standing a few yards away from the Pope and was knocked down in the scuffle.[28] The Vatican said Maiolo was "psychologically unstable" and had lunged at the Pope previously.[29]

In 2015, Etchegaray fell in St. Peter's Basilica during Mass and broke his leg for the second time.[30]

Etchegaray returned to Bayonne, France, in January 2017, to live with his sister Maité (d. 13 February 2018) in a retirement home in Cambo-les-Bains near Espelette, the village where he was born. Catholic News Agency journalist Andrea Gagliarducci described Cardinal Etchegary's retirement from Rome as "the end of an era".[31] He had farewell meetings with Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before he left.[31] Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals on 10 June 2017.[32]

Etchegaray died on 4 September 2019, three weeks before his 97th birthday.[33] At the time of his death he was the oldest living cardinal, following the death of Cardinal Pimiento Rodriguez one day earlier on 3 September 2019.[34] Etchegaray was the longest-serving cardinal not to participate in a papal conclave.[lower-alpha 1]