Dionigi Tettamanzi (14 March 1934 – 5 August 2017) was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, who was named a cardinal in 1998. He was Archbishop of Genoa from 1995 to 2004 and Archbishop of Milan from 2004 to 2011.
Although thought one of the favorite candidates to succeed John Paul II in 2005, there were reports that he received few votes in the conclave.[5] Tettamanzi was said to speak only Italian. He was little known outside his own country.[1]
In 2006, giving the opening address at the decennial conference of the Italian Catholic Church, he challenged the traditional alliance of the hierarchy with the country's conservative parties and called for more flexibility in forming alliances in contrast to the preference of Cardinal Camillo Ruini, head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, for Silvio Berlusconi. He said: "It is better to be Christian without saying it, than to proclaim it without being it."[5]
In response to Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum of July 2007, Tettamanzi stated that the rules it presented for the celebration of the Mass in different forms did not apply to the Milan archdiocese since it uses the Ambrosian Rite rather than the Roman.[6]
In March 2009, as required upon reaching the age of 75, he submitted his resignation,[7] and Pope Benedict accepted it on the 54th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, 28 June 2011. In retirement, Tettamanzi lived at the Villa Sacro Cuore [it], a retreat house of the Milan Archdiocese, in Triuggio.[8]
In 2015, at the behest of Pope Francis, he produced a study of the feasibility of creating a Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life for consideration by the Council of Cardinals.[12] In September 2015, Pope Francis nominated him to participate in the Synod on the Family in October.[13] He supported, under certain conditions, admitting the divorced and remarried to the Eucharist.[14]
In his speech on St. Ambrose day in 2008, he said that Muslims have the right to build their mosques in the cities of predominantly Catholic countries.[16] In his speech on St. Ambrose day 2010 he defended immigrants to Italy against attempts to classify them as criminals.[17][18]
Remarried Catholics
In 2008, in a letter addressed to Catholics who had divorced and remarried, he wrote:[19]
The fact that these relationships are frequently lived with a sense of responsibility and with love among the couple and for the children is a reality that the Church and its pastors take into account. It is an error to think that the norm regulating access to Eucharistic Communion means that divorced and remarried couples are excluded from a life of faith and charity, lived within the ecclesial community.
He said he wanted to "establish dialogue ... to try to hear about your daily life, to allow myself to be questioned by some of your questions.... The Church has not forgotten nor rejected you, nor does it consider you unworthy. For the Church, and for me, as a bishop, you are my beloved brothers and sisters."[19]
In 2014, he published Il Vangelo della misericordia per le famiglie ferite (The Gospel of Mercy for Wounded Families) and said he anticipated allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion as long as there is no confusion about the Church's insistence on the indissolubility of marriage and there is "a restored commitment to Christian life through faithful paths that are true and serious."[20]
