POPE ACCEPTS RESIGNATION FROM DEAN OF COLLEGE OF CARDINALS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 30, 2002 (VIS) - Made public today was the Pope's Letter to Cardinal Bernardin Gantin in which he accepts the cardinal's request to resign his position as dean of the College of Cardinals and the title of the suburbicarian Church of Ostia. The new dean will be Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"The sentiments of devotion that you, with great trust, have expressed once again," writes the Holy Father, "have had a profound echo in my soul, ... knowing that they are a confirmation, according to the motto of your episcopal coat of arms 'In tuo sancto servitio', of a life dedicated to the service of the Lord in deep communion in thought and affection with the Successor of Peter."

John Paul II observes that the cardinal had expressed the desire to leave his role as dean on his eightieth birthday and to return to his homeland, Benin, "in order to still make a useful contribution to the life of the Church" in the country and "to give a penetrating testimony in favor of the Gospel."

"Keeping all of this in mind," he concludes, "I have decided to grant the double petition that he has presented to me, wishing with this gesture to show him the acute recognition that I carry in my heart for all the help that he has offered to me generously in these years."

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