He was a leading figure in dialogue with other religions, particularly Islam, on which he was a specialist.
In the morning of his day of death, Pope Francis had announced during an audience with representatives of the Jain religion that the 72-year-old Spaniard was “very ill” and “at the end of his life.”
The cardinal's health had been deteriorating since 2016, as indicated in his biography on the Vatican website.
But this had not prevented the dicastery leader — as secretary starting in 2012, under French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran (1943-2018), then as president and cardinal since 2019 — from continuing to travel to the four corners of the world as part of his mission of dialogue with religions.
This discreet but very active intellectual had also accompanied Pope Francis on his recent trips to countries where interreligious dialogue is especially important, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan in February 2023, and Lisbon in August 2023.
Most recently, however, the prefect was unable to join the papal retinue on its tour of Asia last September. Visits to certain countries — Indonesia, Singapore — nevertheless included an important interreligious theme.
A former missionary in Egypt and Sudan
Born in 1952 in Seville, Spain, Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot was the fifth of nine children. Discovering his vocation early on, he decided to join the minor seminary in Seville. However, his parents took him out a year later so that he could finish his schooling before making up his mind.
After finishing high school, he began studying law, while continuing to attend his parish and spiritual retreats for young people. It was during this time that he discovered Comboni missionary publications and magazines, which led to his decision to join the order in 1973. He pronounced his perpetual vows in 1980, and received priestly ordination later that year.
After a long period of studies, he obtained a degree in Arabic and Islamic studies from PISAI, the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, in 1982. He was then sent to Egypt and Sudan as a missionary from 1982 to 2002.
In addition to his pastoral work, he became a professor of Islamic studies in Khartoum and Cairo from 1989. Then, in 2006, he became head of PISAI. In this capacity, he led important interfaith discussions with Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. In 2010, Benedict XVI appointed him special auditor at the Synod for the Middle East.
Reconciliation after the Regensburg speech
Five years after the scandal caused by the misunderstanding of the German pontiff's speech at Regensburg in 2006, which provoked great anger in the Muslim world, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar (Cairo), Ahmed el-Tayeb, broke off all dialogue with the Vatican. Pope Benedict asked Bishop Ayuso to work towards resuming dialogue with the eminent Egyptian Muslim authority.
Appointed secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in 2012, he was a key figure in rebuilding this new relationship. He did this based on the defense of joint initiatives to promote peace, the right to religious education, the right to citizenship, and the defense of religious freedom.
Gradually, he facilitated the emergence of a new relationship of friendship and collaboration, culminating in the historic signing of the Document on Human Fraternity by Pope Francis and the Egyptian Grand Imam in Abu Dhabi in 2019. He was also instrumental in establishing a dialogue with Saudi Arabia.
An important contributor to the pontificate
In 2014, a year after the election of Pope Francis, he was confirmed in his post. Then, in 2016, he was ordained bishop by the Argentine pontiff. Throughout the early part of his pontificate, Bishop Ayuso was the principal assistant to Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who eventually died of Parkinson's disease in 2018.
The following year, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Ayuso president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, a few months before creating him a cardinal. The body he headed became the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in 2022 with the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium.
With his expertise in Islam, Cardinal Ayuso worked not only for rapprochement with Sunni Islam, but also with Shiite Islam (notably with the meeting between the Pope and Iraqi Ayatollah al-Sistani in 2021). He played an important role in dialogue with Buddhism (accompanying the Pope on his trip to Thailand and Japan in 2019) and Hinduism.
Ayuso was one of the close collaborators who helped Pope Francis draft Fratelli tutti in 2020, a text with an important interreligious dimension.
Following his death, the College of Cardinals now comprises 120 elector cardinals and 112 non-elector cardinals (who are over 80). The consistory on December 7 will increase these numbers to 140 cardinal electors and 113 cardinal non-electors.