Benin-born Former Vatican Culture Secretary Dies at 83, Eulogized as “great theologian”

Dassa, 27 October, 2025 / 9:33 PM

Bishop Barthélemy Adoukonou, a native of Benin and former Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture at the Vatican, has passed on at the age of 83.

Bishop Adoukonou passed on shortly after midnight on Monday, October 27, at the University Teaching Hospital in Cotonou, the Local Ordinary of Cotonou Catholic Archdiocese who doubles as the President of the Episcopal Conference of Benin (CEB) announced in a statement.

“A great theologian, educator, and man of faith, Bishop Adoukonou devoted his entire life to the service of God, the Church, and culture,” Archbishop Roger Houngbédji says in the October 27 statement.

Archbishop Houngbédji notes that as former Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Bishop Adoukonou “worked with intelligence and passion to foster dialogue between faith and reason, between the Gospel and African cultures.”

“His teaching, wisdom, and deep love for the Church have profoundly influenced generations of Priests, women and men Religious, intellectuals, and lay faithful,” the member of the Order of Preachers (OP/Dominicans) says.

He further says the late Bishop’s passing “leaves a great void in the life of the Church and the intellectual world, but his radiant witness remains a precious spiritual and cultural legacy.”

“We commend his soul to the mercy of the Lord, in the firm belief that Christ, conqueror of death, welcomes him into the joy of His Kingdom,” Archbishop Houngbédji says, and adds, “Funeral arrangements will be communicated at a later date.”

Bishop Adoukonou served as rector of Saint-Paul di Djimé Major Seminary in Benin from 1977 to 1984; professor of fundamental theology at the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA) in Abidjan Ivory Coast, from 1978 to 1982.

From 2000 to 2009, Bishop Adoukonou served as Secretary of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA).

In December 2009, he was appointed Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture and was ordained Bishop in October 2011.

The founder of the Movement Le Sillon Noir (Mewihwendo), which he animated from its inception in 1970 until 1999 also served as member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications,  and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, now the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

He was also a member of the International Theological Commission for two five-year terms.

In another statement issued October 27, the Rector of the Catholic University of the Congo (UCC) described Bishop Adoukonou as an “undisputed and indisputable master of the inculturation of the Christian faith in Africa.”

Fr. Léonard Santedi Kinkupu recalled that the late Bishop Adoukonou, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university’s Faculty of Theology, “was one of the pioneers of African theology.”

“The Theological School of Kinshasa pays a vibrant tribute to this master,” Fr. Santedi says, adding that his 1977 doctoral thesis, Foundations for an African Theology: An Essay on a Christian Hermeneutic of the Dahomean Vodun, written under the supervision of Professor Joseph Ratzinger – later Pope Benedict XVI – “remains a masterpiece in theology and a major contribution to the essential and ever-demanding dialogue between faith and culture.”

Fr. Santedi extends his condolences “to the biological and religious family of the deceased, as well as to the entire African academic community,” and commends his soul “to your fervent prayers.”

“May the Lord welcome him into His Kingdom and grant him the reward promised to the good and faithful servant,” the UCC Rector implores.