Cardinal Bertello, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, was born on October 1, 1942, in Fogizzo, in the Province of Turin, Italy.
He was ordained a priest in June 29, 1966. He holds a license in pastoral theology, a doctorate in canon law and studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.
He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1971 and served at the pontifical representations in Sudan, Turkey, Venezuela and at the Holy See mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
On October 17, 1987, he was nominated titular Archbishop of Urbisaglia and pro-nuncio in Ghana, in Togo and in Benin. He received episcopal ordination on November 28, 1987.
On January 12, 1991, he became apostolic nuncio (papal ambassador) in Rwanda, in the most acute phase of the civil war between the Hutus and the Tutis. In March 1995, he was appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva and on August 9, 1997, to the World Trade Organization.
On December 27, 2000, he was appointed apostolic nuncio in Mexico. In this capacity he welcomed Pope John Paul II on his fifth visit to the country in 2002.
On January 11, 2007, he was appointed apostolic nuncio in Italy and in the Republic of San marino.
On September 3, 2011, he became President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.
On April 13, 2013, he was made a member of the group of cardinals established to advise Pope Francis in the government of the universal Church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, ‘Pastor Bonus.’
Cardinal Bertello was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Benedict XVI in the consistory of February 18, 2012, of the Deaconry of Santi Vito, Modesto e Crescenzia (Sts. Vitus, Modetus and Crescentia).
Member of:
- Congregations: for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples
- Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace