The Portuguese poet who could become pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The face of the Catholic Church’s push to reestablish its relationship with the world of culture, a 59-year-old Portuguese poet and theologian, is among the youngest of the cardinals mentioned as a contender to become the successor of St. Peter.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça became the first prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education after its creation in 2022 from a merger of the former Congregation for Catholic Education and the Pontifical Council for Culture.

A close ally of Pope Francis, the cardinal is vocal in his insistence on creating an inclusive church and building the “outgoing church” that the pope often calls for, particularly in terms of its engagement with culture.

“Nobody can be excluded from the love and mercy of Christ,” including “remarried Christians, wounded by their experiences of marital shipwreck,” or “homosexual people, who must find a space in the church for listening, welcoming and showing mercy,” he said in an interview in 2022.

The cardinal has also championed Pope Francis’ vision for a more synodal church, describing the Synod of Bishops on synodality as “fundamental” to growing the church in the world, increasing lay participation and fostering dialogue with contemporary society.

Born on the Portuguese island of Madeira, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça lived in Angola until the age of 9, when Portugal withdrew from its colonies in Africa. He studied at the Portuguese Catholic University and was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Funchal on Madeira in 1990 — the same year in which he published his first book of poetry. He then studied biblical sciences in Rome and later earned a doctorate in biblical theology from the Portuguese Catholic University.

He served as a parish priest, seminary professor and later as rector of the Pontifical Portuguese College in Rome before joining the faculty of the Portuguese Catholic University, where he was made dean of the theology department in 2018. From 2011-2012 he conducted research on religion and public reason at New York University.

From 2004-2014 he was the first director of the Portuguese bishops’ conference’s secretariat for the pastoral care of culture. In 2018, Pope Francis invited him to preach the Lenten retreat for the Roman Curia, where the two had their first chance to truly converse in person. Later that year, the pope named him a bishop and appointed him Vatican archivist and librarian. In 2019, at the age of 53, he was made a cardinal.

In 2023, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça was awarded the Pessoa Prize, one of Portugal’s most prestigious honors, which is given annually to individuals excelling in the country’s artistic, cultural or scientific fields. While his poetry often explores spiritual themes, it is not exclusively religious, and he is highly regarded in Portugal as a poet independent of his ecclesiastical career.

Under his leadership, the dicastery has spearheaded several key initiatives. In 2023, Pope Francis hosted more than 200 musicians, writers, poets and other artists in the Sistine Chapel to celebrate 50 years since St. Paul VI established the modern and contemporary art collection in the Vatican Museums.

For Pope Francis and the church, “artists are allies in dreaming of a better world,” the cardinal told reporters after the event.

The following year, the pope met with comedians and comic artists in another meeting organized by the dicastery that brought comedy A-listers such as Conan O’Brien, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon and Julia Louis-Dreyfus to the Vatican.

In a 2024 interview with America magazine, Cardinal Tolentino said the greatest challenge facing the church today is the “the translation of the Christian experience into the languages of our time, and the ability to build community where there was none.”

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