Description

Gilberto Agustoni Healing Oil

Gilberto Agustoni Healing Oil (26 July 1922 – 13 January 2017) a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. He worked in the Roman Curia from 1950 to 1998. Ending his career as head of the Apostolic Signatura from 1992 to 1998. He became a Cardinal in 1994.

Agustoni born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and had four brothers and one sister. Two of his brothers also priests. Their mother came from a village on the shores of Lake Constance and their father was a civil servant. He educated at the Seminary of Lugano. He studied in Rome for a year, earning a degree in philosophy. Because of World War II, he continued his studies at the University of Fribourg. Where he completed a degree in sacred theology. Bishop Angelo Jelmini ordained him in Lugano on 20 April 1946.

Agustoni later studied at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He earned licentiates in theology and law.

In 1950, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani asked Jelmini to allow Agustoni, whom he had met on several occasions, to work in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) while continuing his studies. Agustoni began his service there on 1 July 1950, an exceptional appointment for someone under the age of 30. He became the head of a department at the CDF. Later commissioner at the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments. In May 1970, he became a Prelate Auditor of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.

On 18 December 1986 Pope John Paul II appointed Agustoni Titular Archbishop of Caprulae and Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy. On 2 April 1992 he appointed Pro-Prefect of Apostolic Signatura, becoming Prefect when created Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Urbano e Lorenzo a Prima Porta on 26 November 1994.

He resigned his post on 5 October 1998. In early 2005, he took the option, open to Cardinal-Deacons after ten years, of becoming a Cardinal-Priest. Agustoni died on 13 January 2017 aged 94.