Sebastiani was born in Montemonaco, Italy. He studied at the Episcopal Seminary of Ascoli Piceno and later at the Archiepiscopal Seminary of Fermo. He continued his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he earned his licentiate in theology and at the Pontifical Lateran University where he was awarded a doctorate in canon law. He was ordained in 1956. In 1976, he became Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Mauretania, as well as Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Mauretania and Mauricius. Sebastiani became Apostolic Nuncio (ambassador of the Holy See), to Turkey in 1985. In 1994, he was appointed General Secretary of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
In 1997, Sebastiani was made President of Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, part of the government of Vatican City, responsible for overseeing and managing the Vatican's temporal possessions. He served in this position (with a legally required interruption during the 2005 sede vacante) until his resignation on April 12, 2008. Pope Benedict XVI named Velasio De Paolis as Sebastiani's successor.
Sergio Sebastiani was made a Cardinal Deacon of S. Eustachio in 2001, and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
External links
Sources
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday April 30, 2008 at 05:20:33 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.