Cardinal Fernando Vérgez will no longer be an elector in the event of a conclave when he reaches the age of 80.
His term as President of the Vatican City State will also end; a position he has held since 2021 and for which he already has a substitute, since, for the first time, a woman will occupy this position.
The Spanish cardinal became a cardinal three years ago, when Pope Francis placed the cardinal's hat on him in the consistory of August 2022.
Vérgez also had the opportunity to be with Pope Benedict XVI, in what was one of the last public appearances of the German Pope, who would die four months later.
CARD. FERNANDO VÉRGEZ
President of the Vatican Governorate
We came to greet him, he is fine. He looks like a 96-year-old. You can tell, he barely speaks, but he acknowledges because he made me director of telecommunications when he was Pope. And I told him: “Holy Father, I was Cardinal Pironio’s secretary” and he said “yes”. So, he acknowledges, he acknowledges. But anyway, it was just a greeting. And then he gave us the blessing with Pope Francis, both of us.
Cardinal Vérgez has a long career in the Roman Curia, which he joined in 1972, when he was called as an official to what would be today the Dicastery for Consecrated Life.
Before being president of the Vatican City State, which would be equivalent to Prime Minister, he was the Secretary General. He also participated in an interdicasterial meeting on ecology.
ARCHIVO, 2020
CARD. FERNANDO VÉRGEZ
President of the Vatican Governorate
This is what we have tried to do at the Governorate of the Vatican City State, raising awareness among our employees and those who work directly or indirectly around the governorate towards an integral ecology that is realized in the small actions of every day.
Cardinal Fernando Vérgez was the first cardinal to belong to the order of the Legionaries of Christ.
CA
TR: GS
