梵蒂岡消息 – 阿馬托樞機（Cardinal Angelo Amato）安息主懷－聖若望鮑思高的神子，懷著人性的細膩和慷慨之情為福音和教會盡心竭力。
【慈幼通訊社 ─ 2025 年1月2 日梵蒂岡訊】 －阿馬托樞機是聖座封聖部的榮休部長，於2024年12月31日安息主懷，享年86歲。他的逝世後，樞機團目前共有252位樞機主教，其中139位為選舉人，113位為非選舉人。
「感謝天主，因為這位鮑思高神父的神子建樹良多的見證，他多年來懷著人性的細膩和慷慨之情為福音和教會盡心竭力。我想起他作為司鐸的精神和神學的素養，為聖座，特別是在教義部和封聖部的服務。我向你們保證，為這位好僕人的靈魂祈禱。」教宗方濟各在寄給慈幼會代理總會長馬道力（Stefano Martoglio）神父的唁電中緬懷阿馬托樞機。
阿馬托在 1938 年 6 月 8 日出生於莫爾費塔（巴里）的造船家庭。他是家中四個孩子中的長子，曾在巴里航海學院的遠洋船長部門學習。但在他學習第三年時，也就是在 1953 年 10 月，他決定放棄這職業，加入 Torre Annunziata的慈幼會修院。 在1956年首次宣發聖願。他搬到羅馬後，在當時的慈幼宗座學院（今天的慈幼宗座大學）學習，考獲了哲學學位。 1962年，他宣誓終身聖願，並在奇斯泰尼諾（布林迪西）慈幼書院開始了為期兩年的實習，並在那裡的中學教授文學。在羅馬慈幼大學神學院獲得神學學位，他於 1967 年 12 月 22 日晉鐸。
他就讀於宗座額我略大學，並於 1974 年獲得神學博士學位，並立即被聘為神學教授。 1977年，他被當時的基督徒合一秘書處派往希臘，在雅典的耶穌會會院待了四個月，為考大學做準備。通過入學考試（現代書面和口語希臘語）後，他成為君士坦丁堡教區的獎學金得主並搬到了塞薩洛尼基。他住在弗拉塔頓修道院，這裡是東正教修道院和教父研究學院的所在地，修道院內有一座專門研究東正教神學的圖書館，以及一批珍貴的阿索斯山手稿微縮膠卷。隨後，他進入塞薩洛尼基大學神學院學習，並聽取 Jannis Kaloghirou 的教義史講座和 Jannis Romanidis 的系統教義學講座。同時，他進行了有關16至20世紀希臘東正教神學中的修和聖事的研究，並在《Análekta Vlatádon》系列（1982年）發表研究結果。
回到羅馬後，他在慈幼宗座大學神學系教授基督論，並於1981至1987年以及1994至1999年擔任該院院長。從1997至2000年，他還擔任該大學的副校長。 1988年，他被派往華盛頓研究宗教神學並完成基督論的教科書。隨後，他被任命為宗座教義部、基督徒合一促進委員會和宗教交談委員會的顧問，以及宗座國際聖母學院顧問。 1999年，他被任命為重組後的宗座神學院秘書長，和新創辦的神學雜誌《道路》（Path）的編輯。 1996年至2000年，他擔任2000年大禧年神學歷史委員會成員。
2002 年12 月19 日，他被任命為信理部秘書，並選為領銜錫拉教區主教，擁有總主教的個人頭銜。他於2003年1月6日在梵蒂岡大殿接受了教宗若望保祿二世的主教祝聖。
2008 年7 月9 日，本篤十六世任命他接替若瑟．薩拉依瓦．瑪爾定樞機擔任冊封聖人部部長，在2010年11月20日的樞機會議上，他被擢陞為阿奎羅的聖瑪利亞教區的執事樞機。他參加了2013年3月選舉教宗方濟各的教宗選舉。 2013 年 12 月 19 日，教宗方濟各確認他為冊封聖人部部長的任期至「另行通知 」， 他於2018年在即將年滿80歲前不久辭去了該職位。
2013 年 11 月，阿馬托樞機在莫爾費塔主教座堂結束了Tonino Bello主教列品和封聖程序的教區階段。他指出，「思想和行動的自由、對平信徒的重視、對年輕人的教育、和平的價值、對鄰人的愛以及對貧困者的關懷」這些都是Tonino Bello主教在1982 至1986 年期間擔任莫爾費塔主教時的教導。 「他的見證告訴我們，聖潔不是少數人的特權，而是所有人的使命」，因為我們都被召叫去跟隨耶穌和信望愛三超德。
莫爾費塔的主教Monsignor Domenico Cornacchia與整個教區一起，對阿馬托樞機懷著「深切的感激」，稱他為「一位虔誠且不知疲倦的牧者，他以極大的奉獻精神服務於普世教會和天主的子民」。
來源：梵蒂岡新聞
Vatican – Cardinal Angelo Amato, ‘Spiritual son of St John Bosco who for so many years spent himself with human finesse and generosity for the Gospel and the Church’ has died
(ANS – Vatican City) – Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, passed away on 31 December: he was 86 years old. Following his death, the College of Cardinals now consists of 252 cardinals, of whom 139 are electors and 113 are non-electors.
‘I give thanks to God for the edifying witness of this spiritual son of St John Bosco who for so many years spent himself with human finesse and generosity for the Gospel and the Church. I think of his priestly spirit and the theological preparation with which he served the Holy See, especially in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. I assure you of my prayers for the soul of this good servant’. This is how Pope Francis remembers Salesian Cardinal Angelo Amato, in a telegram addressed to the Vicar of the Rector Major, Fr Stefano Martoglio.
Angelo Amato was born in Molfetta (Bari), on 8 June 1938, to a family of shipbuilders. The first of four children, he had undertaken his studies at the Nautical Institute in Bari, in the long-distance captains department. But at the beginning of his third year of studies, in October 1953, he decided to abandon this career to enter the Salesian aspirantate in Torre Annunziata. In 1956, he made his first religious profession. After moving to Rome, he studied at the then Pontifical Salesian Athenaeum (today the Pontifical Salesian University), obtaining a licence in philosophy. In 1962 he made his perpetual religious profession, and began two years of practical training at the Salesian College in Cisternino (Brindisi), where he taught literature in the middle school. After obtaining a licence in theology at the Salesian University’s Faculty of Theology in Rome, he was ordained a priest on 22 December 1967.
He enrolled at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and in 1974 obtained a doctorate in theology, being immediately called to teach the subject. In 1977 he was sent to Greece by the then Secretariat for Christian Unity, spending four months in the Jesuits’ Athens residence to prepare for university enrolment. After passing the entrance exam (modern written and spoken Greek), he moved to Thessaloniki as a scholarship holder for the Patriarchate of Constantinople. He resided at the Vlatadon Monastery, home of the Orthodox monks’ convent and the Idrima ton Paterikon Meleton (Institute of Patristic Studies), with a library specialising in Orthodox theology and a valuable microfilm collection of Mount Athos manuscripts. He then enrolled in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Thessaloniki, attending Jannis Kaloghirou’s lectures on the history of dogma and Jannis Romanidis’ lectures on systematic dogmatics. At the same time, he conducted research on the sacrament of penance in Greek Orthodox theology from the 16th to the 20th century, which was published in the ‘Análekta Vlatádon’ series (1982).
Back in Rome, he taught Christology in the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Salesian University, of which he was Dean from 1981 to 1987 and from 1994 to 1999. From 1997-2000 he was also Vice Rector of the same University. In 1988 he was sent to Washington for studies on the theology of religions and to complete the Christology textbook. He was then appointed consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity and for Interreligious Dialogue, and councillor of the Pontifical International Marian Academy. In 1999 he was appointed Prelate Secretary of the restructured Pontifical Academy of Theology and editor of the newly founded theological magazine ‘Path’. From 1996 to 2000 he was a member of the theological-historical commission for the Great Jubilee of the Year Two Thousand.
Appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 19 December 2002 and elected to the titular See of Sila with the personal title of archbishop, he received episcopal consecration on 6 January 2003 from Pope John Paul II in the Vatican Basilica.
On 9 July 2008, Benedict XVI called him to succeed Cardinal José Saraiva Martins as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and in the Consistory of 20 November 2010 created him Cardinal of the Diaconia of Santa Maria in Aquiro. He participated in the conclave of March 2013 that elected Pope Francis. On 19 December 2013, Pope Francis confirmed him ‘donec aliter provideatur’ as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, a post he left in 2018 shortly before turning 80.
In November 2013, Cardinal Amato closed the diocesan phase of the beatification and canonisation process of Bishop Tonino Bello in Molfetta Cathedral. ‘Freedom of thought and action, appreciation of the laity, education for the young, the value of peace, love for one’s neighbour, consideration for the poor,’ said the cardinal, ‘were the teachings’ of Bishop Tonino, bishop of Molfetta from 1982 to 1986. His testimony,’ Cardinal Amato emphasised, “tells us that holiness is not a privilege of the few, but a vocation for all,” because we are all called to follow ’Jesus and the theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.
The bishop of Molfetta, Monsignor Domenico Cornacchia, together with the entire diocese, remembers Cardinal Amato ‘with profound gratitude’ as ‘a man of faith and tireless pastor, who served the universal Church and the people of God with great dedication’.
Source: Vatican News