Paul Poupard

Paul Joseph Jean Poupard was born in Bouzillé, France, on 30 August 1930 and ordained a priest on 18 December 1954. With Sorbonne doctorates in theology and history, he served in the Secretariat of State's French section (1959–71) and became rector of the Institut Catholique de Paris (1972–80). Appointed auxiliary bishop of Paris in February 1979 (consecrated 6 April by Cardinal Marty, and promoted archbishop the next year), he led the Secretariat — later Pontifical Council — for Dialogue with Non-Believers (1980–93), then the Pontifical Council for Culture from 19 April 1988 to 3 September 2007: almost twenty years as the Church's interlocutor with the arts, the sciences, and unbelief. “To dialogue with another means one has to be oneself,” he said of the work.

John Paul II created him a cardinal in May 1985 — Wikipedia dates the consistory 25 May, the Holy See biography 27 May — with the deaconry of Sant'Eugenio, later the title of Santa Prassede (1996). From March 2006 to June 2007 he also presided over the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. A prolific author translated into a dozen languages, he holds honorary doctorates on four continents. His motto is the Augustinian Episcopus vobis, vobiscum Christianus — “for you a bishop, with you a Christian.”