A cultured man with a deep humanity, Silvestrini embodied the best of Vatican diplomacy. His intervention during the Falklands War eased rising tensions and saved John Paul II’s 1982 papal visit to the UK

A cultured man with a deep humanity, Silvestrini embodied the best of Vatican diplomacy. His intervention during the Falklands War eased rising tensions and saved John Paul II’s 1982 papal visit to the UK

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, who has died in Rome at the age of 95, embodied the best of Vatican diplomacy, combining patience and shrewdness with a deep humanity.

A big man, in every sense, Silvestrini had an openness of mind and an easy cordiality. He was born in Brisighella, a small town in the Emilia-Romagna region, a background he shared with the film director, Federico Fellini, a dear friend whom he admired for his “infinite tenderness”.

He entered a local seminary at 19, but studied literature and philosophy at the University of Bologna as well as theology and canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, and always kept in touch with the broader culture. He was ordained in 1946 and in 1953 he joined the Vatican diplomatic service, working with, amongst others, the Cicognani brothers, Gaetano and Amleto, both cardinals, who also came from Brisighella. Amleto served as secretary of state between 1961 and 1969. With its chief architect, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Silvestrini pursued the Vatican’s controversial Ostpolitik policy. Its aim was to find a modus non moriendi – a “way of not dying” – for the beleaguered Catholic Church in the countries of the Warsaw Pact. A few stooge bishops were mistakenly appointed. However, in 1975 the Vatican negotiators were quick to recognise the importance of the Helsinki Final Act on Security and Co-operation in Europe, and successfully pushed for the inclusion of religious liberty and conscience provisions, giving believers suffering discrimination the right to appeal to an international treaty.

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