Benedict XVI's secretary of state was given the dignity of cardinal-bishop, a role held by only a few cardinals.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was assigned the historical dignity with the titular see of Frascati. The see was left vacant with the death of Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo on April 19.

Cardinal-bishops are members of the highest order within the College of Cardinals. The dean of the college is elected from among their number.

The dignity is a historical reference to the roles formerly played by cardinals in certain major ecclesiastical offices associated with the See of Rome.

Today, cardinal-bishops are associated with one of the seven suburbicarian dioceses that make up the ecclesiastical province of Rome. These sees correspond to only six cardinal-bishops because the dean of the College of Cardinals takes the See of Ostia as well as the see he was assigned before his election to the rank of dean.

In addition to these cardinal bishops, certain patriarchs of Eastern Churches hold the rank.

Cardinal Bertone has been the Pope's secretary of state since September 2006. Last July, he was sworn in as the chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church -- the cardinal who oversees the affairs of the Church between the death of a pope and the election of a successor.

Tarcisio Bertone was born in 1934. He is a member of the Congregation of the Salesians of St. John Bosco. He was secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1995 to 2002 and archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006.

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