Who is John Baptist Re, the Dean who will celebrate the funeral of Pope Francis

Born in the small village of Borno in Val Camonica, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re - dean of the College of Cardinals - will be the man in the spotlight in the coming days, with the busiest moment at the funeral celebrations of Pope Francis, scheduled for Saturday, 26 April. He will be the one to celebrate Bergoglio's funeral, also taking care of the invitations from heads of state and the ceremony on which the eyes of the whole world will be focused.

Ninety-one years old last 30 January, Re comes from a family of farmers, although his father was a carpenter and his mother a housewife. He has a brother and five sisters, one of whom is a Canossian nun. He entered the seminary in Brescia at the age of eleven, in 1945, immediately after the Second World War, where he completed his middle and high school studies and attended philosophical and theological courses. He was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Brescia, Monsignor Giacinto Tredici, on 3 March 1957. For years he was the Holy See's representative abroad, first in Panama and then in Iran, before returning to the Vatican at the Secretariat of State, where he remained for 28 years.

On 9 October 1987 he was promoted to secretary of the Congregation for Bishops and received episcopal ordination from the hands of John Paul II in the Vatican Basilica on 7 November of the same year as titular archbishop of Vescovìo. At the same time he was also secretary of the College of Cardinals. His collaboration with Wojtyla was continuous. As substitute in the Secretariat of State, he also accompanied the Pontiff on numerous apostolic journeys in Italy and abroad. As a bishop he chose the motto 'Virtus ex alto'. Appointed cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II himself, he participated in the conclave of April 2005 that elected Benedict XVI and in the conclave of March 2013 that elected Pope Francis.

On 18 January 2020, Bergoglio approved his election by the Cardinals of the Order of Bishops as Dean of the College of Cardinals. A role that was extended to him by Bergoglio, of whom he had the highest esteem, on 7 January this year. He always had an excellent relationship of harmony and loyalty with Francis. A trustworthy person and 'political' man, he was an attentive connoisseur of diplomacy.