Gianfranco Gardin

Gianfranco Agostino Gardin, O.F.M. Conv. (born 1944) is the current Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He was appointed on 11 July 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI. He will serve alongside Franc Cardinal Rode who is Prefect.

He was ordained a priest in 1970 and taught moral theology for 15 years in Padua.

From 1980 to 1998, he edited the magazine he founded, [http://www.credereoggi.it"Credere oggi"] , whose title translates as "Believing Today." Gardin is expected to be raised to the level of Archbishop of a titular see as is customary for men in his position.

The Archbishop-elect is the fifth major Curial appointee of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. To date, the pontiff named William Joseph Levada to take his place at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone as his Cardinal Secretary of State, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and Ivan Cardinal Dias as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.