José Tolentino de Mendonça

On 30 April 2022, Pope Francis appointed de Mendonça a member of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro.

On 13 July 2022 Pope Francis appointed 13 new members to the Dicastery for Bishops, including 3 women. Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça is one of the 11 other members of this dicastery, whose prefect is Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

On 26 September 2022, Pope Francis named him prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

On 4 August 2021, de Mendonça made his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic at a ceremony held at the São Domingos convent in Lisbon and presided over Mass following the ceremony in which he received the white habit. In his capacity as a member in the secular order, he does not possess any obligations towards the official Dominican hierarchy, but he commits to the charism of the Dominicans and to live in accordance with their style. He made his initial rite of admission to and received the habit from Father José Nunes, the prior provincial for the Portuguese Dominicans.

In January 2020, de Mendonça was part of the scientific commission for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death (1265-1321) organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

In February 2020, Pope Francis appointed de Mendonça as a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, chaired by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. De Mendonça had been a consultor between 2011 and 2018.

On 13 June 2020, de Mendonça is laureate of Prémio Europeu Helena Vaz da Silva because of "the ability he shows in spreading beauty and poetry as part of the intangible cultural heritage of Europe and the world".

On 17 November 2020, Pope Francis appointed de Mendonça a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples presided over by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.

He was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education in September 2022. An archbishop since July 2018, he was Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church from 2018 to 2022. Pope Francis created him cardinal on 5 October 2019. Since 2020, he has been a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic.

On 5 October 2019, Pope Francis made him a Cardinal Deacon and assigned him the church of Santi Domenico e Sisto in Rome. He was made a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture on 21 February 2020.

In 2018 Pope Francis invited de Mendonça to preach the Lenten Retreat of the Roman Curia. Besides the Bible, his comments referenced many writers, such as Fernando Pessoa, Roland Barthes, Clarice Lispector, Françoise Dolto, Etty Hillesum and Blaise Pascal. He commented: "Sometimes writers are important spiritual masters." He also mentioned that he tells his biblical students that "a biblical scholar or a priest must see many movies, listen to a lot of music and get in touch with the arts world". These sermons were published under the title Elogio da Sede with a preface by Pope Francis.

At the end of June 2018, Pope Francis named de Mendonça Vatican archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church as of 1 September and appointed him titular archbishop of Suava. On 28 July, Archbishop Manuel Clemente, Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, consecrated him a bishop assisted by Cardinal António Marto, Bishop of Leiria-Fátima, and Teodoro de Faria, Bishop Emeritus of Funchal who had ordained him a priest in July 1990.

After attending a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI bringing together a large number of artists in 2009, he said that the Pope's gesture of hospitality was appreciated. Benedict pointed out that "within the Church, within the Christian space, they have their home, a sort of homeland". In 2011 Benedict XVI appointed him a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Pope Francis reappointed him to this position in 2016.

De Mendonça was the first director of the National Secretariat of the Pastoral of Culture from 2004 to 2014, an institution created by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference to promote dialogue between the Church and the broader cultural milieu of the country.

De Mendonça's assignments following his ordination included academic appointments as a lecturer at the diocesan seminary of Funchal, the rector of the Pontifical Portuguese College in Rome, and a lecturer at the Portuguese Catholic University. He was visiting professor the Catholic University of Pernambuco (Unicap), Brazil, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and the Jesuit School of Philosophy and Theology of Belo Horizonte (Faje). In Lisbon, he joined the UCP faculty as an assistant (1996-1999), assistant professor (2005-2015), and associate professor. The UCP appointed him Vice-Rector in 2012 and Dean of the Faculty of Theology in 2018. During the academic year 2011-12, he was a Straus Fellow at New York University, joining an international team of researchers working on the theme "Religion and Public Reason".

He has fulfilled pastoral assignments, first of all at the parish of Nossa Senhora do Livramento in Funchal from 1992 to 1995, then as chaplain at the UCP for 5 years. He next served the parish of Santa Isabel in Lisbon and then became rector of the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Bonanza, better known as Capela do Rato, in 2010.

In 1989, he graduated with the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in theology from the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP). He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Funchal, Madeira, on 28 July 1990. That same year he published his first book of poems, Os Dias Contados. In 1992, he was awarded a master's degree in biblical sciences at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In 2004, he earned a doctorate in biblical theology at the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP).

José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça T.O.S.D., ComSE, ComIH (born 15 December 1965) is a Portuguese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A theologian and university professor, he is also regarded as one of the most original voices of modern Portuguese literature and a Catholic intellectual. His work includes poetry, essays and plays that he signs José Tolentino Mendonça.

The youngest of five children, de Mendonça was born on the island of Madeira, Portugal on 15 December 1965. He spent his earliest years in Angola, in several coastal towns where his father was a fisherman. He left Africa at the age of nine when Portugal withdrew from its African colonies.