Manuel Monteiro de Castro was born in Santa Eufémia de Prazins, Guimarães, Portugal, on 29 March 1938 and ordained a priest for Braga on 9 July 1961. With a doctorate in canon law from the Gregorian (1967) he entered the Holy See's diplomatic service that year, serving in Panama, Guatemala, Vietnam and Cambodia, Australia, Mexico, and Belgium. Appointed titular Archbishop of Benevento on 16 February 1985 (consecrated 23 March by Cardinal Casaroli), he became nuncio to the Antilles, then El Salvador and Honduras, South Africa and its neighbours (1998–2000), and Spain and Andorra (2000–09), where he worked to lower the temperature between the Zapatero government and the Church.
In July 2009 Benedict XVI made him Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops and of the College of Cardinals. On 5 January 2012 he became Major Penitentiary — head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Church's tribunal of mercy — and as such was one of only two curial officials who did not have to resign when Benedict resigned in February 2013, serving through the sede vacante. Benedict XVI created him a cardinal on 18 February 2012, with the deaconry of San Domenico di Guzman. He retired on 21 September 2013. His motto is Mane nobiscum Domine — “stay with us, Lord.”
Consequential Quotes
The new political situation in which we are living in Spain sets new challenges in the spreading of the gospel and we must meet those challenges in an appropriate manner… There are other forms of cohabitation and it is good that they be recognised.
Major Works & Initiatives
Major Penitentiary
Headed the tribunal of mercy through the sede vacante.
Secretary for Bishops
Ran the congregation that vets the world's bishops.
Forty-two years a diplomat
Nunciatures from the Caribbean to South Africa to Spain.
Controversies
The 2004 “breaking ranks” headline
As nuncio to Spain in 2004, Monteiro de Castro publicly suggested there were “other forms of cohabitation” that it was good to recognize, which The Guardian headlined as the papal envoy breaking ranks on gay couples — a rare public divergence from Rome's line, at odds with his office's usual discretion.