José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça was born in Funchal, Madeira, on 15 December 1965. He took a licentiate in theology at the Catholic University of Portugal in 1989 and was ordained a priest for Funchal on 28 July 1990 — the same year his first book of poems appeared. A licentiate in biblical sciences at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1992) led to a doctorate summa cum laude in biblical theology at Lisbon in 2004, on Luke 7:36–50, the sinful woman in Simon's house.
He taught New Testament and aesthetic theology at the Catholic University of Portugal (2004–2018), edited the journal Didaskalia, directed its Centre for the Study of Religions and Cultures, and served as vice-rector from 2012, with a research year at NYU's Straus Institute (2011–2012). His weekly Expresso column and his many poetry and essay collections made him one of Portugal's best-known Catholic voices. In February 2018 Pope Francis chose him to preach the Roman Curia's Lenten retreat, 'In praise of thirst'; that June Francis made him Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, and he was ordained a bishop in Lisbon on 28 July 2018, taking the motto Considerate lilia agri — 'Consider the lilies of the field.'
Created cardinal on 5 October 2019, with the deaconry of Santi Domenico e Sisto, he became Prefect of the new Dicastery for Culture and Education on 26 September 2022, where his brief — putting faith in dialogue with art, universities and contemporary culture — is essentially the work of his whole life.
Consequential Quotes
We cannot close the Christian experience in a kind of parenthesis that is only the liturgy.
Culture cannot be at the margins of faith. We must live in culture, accompany it, inhabit it, seeking to build a unity with what we believe.
Theology, just as philosophy, is fundamental, but it only reaches a certain point, which is silence, because after all of the words God remains a mystery. After all the explanations and all the theology that can be written, God remains as a question.
It is the church that is poetry, not a person.
When Christianity loses all the capacity to produce new words, new images, new poetry, new music, it will be dead. You are responsible for the life of Catholicism.
The algorithm always speaks of yesterday; poetry has a pact with the future.
Major Works & Initiatives
Os Dias Contados
His first collection of poetry, published in the year of his ordination to the priesthood.
A Leitura Infinita. Bíblia e interpretação
Essay on the Bible and interpretation, central to his work on Scripture and literature.
O Pequeno Caminho das Grandes Perguntas
Essay ('The little way of the great questions') on faith and the fundamental questions of life.
Elogio da Sede (Thirst)
The meditations he preached to Pope Francis and the Roman Curia at the 2018 Lenten retreat; published in English by Paulist Press in 2019.
Controversies
Preface to a work by Sister Maria Teresa Forcades
Catholic News Agency reporting in June 2024 noted that Mendonça wrote a preface to a book on feminist theology by the Benedictine Sister Maria Teresa Forcades i Vila, who has argued a theological case for abortion rights she describes as 'compatible with the Gospel'; in the preface he praised her for 'courageously pointing out contradictions and looking for alternatives of interpretation.' Critics have treated the preface as a troubling association. In fairness, a preface engaging another theologian's questions is not an endorsement of each of her positions, and Mendonça's stated pastoral approach — given in a 2015 interview about ministry at Lisbon's Capela do Rato — is one of welcome and accompaniment rather than judgment. The point remains contested.