Jan Pieter Schotte

Who was Jan Pieter Schotte?

Jan Pieter Schotte was a Belgian cardinal and an official of the Roman Curia.

He was born on 29 April 1928 in the town of Beveren-Leie in the province of West Flanders. He entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1946. He was ordained a priest in 1952. From 1953 to 1956 he studied canon law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and from 1962 to 1963 at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. From 1955 to 1962 he was professor of canon law at the C.I.C.M. theological seminary in Leuven and from 1957 to 1962 assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He was vice-rector of the C.I.C.M. theological seminary in Leuven from 1956 to 1962. In 1963 he became rector of the Immaculate Heart mission seminary in Washington DC, where he served until 1966. In 1967 he came to Rome as General Secretary of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a post he held until 1972.

Jan Schotte became a bishop in 1984 and an archbishop in 1985. On 26 November 1994 he was given the red hat of cardinal.