Giovanni Lajolo was born in Novara on 3 January 1935 and ordained a priest on 29 April 1960. With a doctorate in canon law from Munich (1965), he studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and entered the Holy See's diplomatic service in 1970, following the negotiations that produced the 1984 revision of the Italian concordat. Appointed Secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and titular Archbishop of Caesariana in October 1988, he was consecrated by John Paul II on 6 January 1989.
From 1995 to 2003 he was nuncio to Germany — overseeing the nunciature's move from Bonn to Berlin in 2001 — and from October 2003 to 2006 he served as Secretary for Relations with States, the Holy See's “foreign minister,” head of its delegation to the UN General Assembly in 2006. On 22 June 2006 Benedict XVI appointed him President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and of its Governorate — effectively the city-state's prime minister. Benedict XVI created him a cardinal on 24 November 2007, with the deaconry of Santa Maria Liberatrice a Monte Testaccio (elevated pro hac vice in 2018); he voted in the 2013 conclave and retired on 1 October 2011.
Consequential Quotes
Even in states in which the right to religious freedom is taken very seriously, perfection is missing, often because a concern for church-state separation leads to penalising religious activity in the public sphere.
Major Works & Initiatives
The Vatican's foreign minister
Secretary for Relations with States.
Governor of Vatican City
Ran the world's smallest state.
Nuncio to Germany
Moved the embassy from Bonn to Berlin.
Controversies
On the record
No significant public controversies reported.