Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo (born January 3, 1935 in Novara, Italy) is the current President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.He served as the Secretary for Relations with States in the Secretariat of State, or foreign minister of Vatican City, from 2003 until his appointment as President in 2006.
He speaks Italian, German, English and French.
He studied at the Seminary of Novara and the Pontifical Roman Seminary and the Pontifical Gregorian University where he earned a licentiate in philosophy in 1955 and a licentiate in theology in 1959.
He entered the University of München where he studied for a doctorate in canon law which he was awarded in 1965.
Then in 1965 he entered the elite Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy to study diplomacy leaving in 1968.
He entered the service of the Secretariat of State in 1970. He worked in the nunciature in Germany collaborating with Corrado Bafile, future cardinal, from 1970 to November 1974.
He was a staff member of the Council for Public Affairs of the Church from November 1974. He was named counselor of nunciature on 1 January 1983. He closely followed the negotiations that led to the signing, in 1984, of the revision of the concordat between Italy and Holy See.
On October 3, 1988, he was appointed Secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See by Pope John Paul II, and was ordained the titular bishop of Caesariana by the pope on January 6, 1989.
He served in the Roman Curia in that office until being appointed nuncio to Germany on December 7, 1995.
He served as nuncio until his appointment as Secretary for Relations with States.
On June 22, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI announced Archbishop Lajolo's appointment as President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of Vatican City, which would take effect on September 15, 2006.
On the same day as the appointment Pope Benedict rasied his see pro hace vice to the level of an archdiocese.
On October 17, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Lajolo would join the College of Cardinals.
Lajolo was elevated to the College of Cardinals in the consistory at St. Peter's Basilica on today, November 24, 2007.
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