Michael Louis Fitzgerald was born in Walsall, England, on 17 August 1937, of Irish parentage, and ordained for the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) on 3 February 1961. A scholar of Arabic and Islam, he directed the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome (1972–78), taught at Makerere University in Kampala, and co-founded the journal Islamochristiana. From 1987 he was Secretary of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, and on 1 October 2002 John Paul II made him President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue — at the time the highest-ranking Briton in the Roman Curia. He signed the Vatican's annual feast-day messages to Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, and consecrated archbishop on 6 January 1992.
In February 2006 Benedict XVI moved him to Cairo as apostolic nuncio to Egypt and delegate to the Arab League — his first diplomatic posting. Vatican watchers debated whether the transfer was demotion or recognition; when Benedict's Regensburg lecture offended Muslims that September, the press noted that “the smartest guy in the Vatican on relations with Muslims” was now absent from Rome. He served in Egypt until 2012, retired to the White Fathers in Jerusalem, then Liverpool, and received an OBE in 2022 for interfaith service. Francis created him a cardinal on 5 October 2019, with the deaconry of Santa Maria in Portico. His motto is Fructum dabit — “it will bear fruit.”
Consequential Quotes
My background in Arabic and Islamic studies is probably considered useful at this moment for the development of relations with Egypt and the rest of the Islamic world.
This is the Christian message: that we are all created in the image of God and everyone of us has our dignity, and this dignity must be respected.
Major Works & Initiatives
President for Interreligious Dialogue
The Church's top office for relations with other faiths.
Nuncio to Egypt
The Vatican's envoy to the Arab world's capital.
The Islam scholar
Interfaith Dialogue: A Catholic View (2006) and decades of scholarship.
Controversies
The 2006 “demotion” reading
Fitzgerald's 2006 transfer from the presidency of the interreligious-dialogue council to the Cairo nunciature was widely read as a sidelining by Benedict XVI, who restructured the council's leadership that year. When the September 2006 Regensburg lecture sparked Muslim protests, commentators noted that “the smartest guy in the Vatican on relations with Muslims” was now overseas. The move was never officially characterized as a demotion.