His Eminence Renato Raffaele Martino

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino is the current Cardinal Protodiacon and Grand Prior of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, in addition to being a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, and the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.

Cardinal Raffaele Martino was born in Salerno, Italy, on November, 23, 1932. He was ordained into the priesthood on June 20, 1957, and holds a doctorate in canon law.

He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1962 and worked in the Nunciatures in Nicaragua, The Philippines, Lebanon, Canada, and Brazil. Between 1970 and 1975, Cardinal Martino served in the Secretariat of State. On September 14, 1980, he was appointed titular Archbishop of Segermes and Nuncio in Thailand and Apostolic Delegate in Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, and Brunei and was consecrated on December 14, 1980 by the then Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli. In 1986, he was appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York. In 1991, he founded the Path to Peace Foundation to further the Holy See’s mission at the U.N. After 16 years of service as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the U.N. Organization, in October, 2002, he was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. On October 25, 2004, under the guidance of Cardinal Martino, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace published the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

On March 11, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Raffaele Martino President the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, where he stayed until 2009, the year of his retirement.