Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, was born in Funchal on the island of Madeira on December 15, 1965. He began his studies at the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP), in Lisbon, in 1986, where he earned the licentiate in Theology in 1989.
Ordained a priest for his home diocese on July 28, 1990, he enrolled that same year at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, where he obtained a licentiate in Biblical Sciences in 1992. In 2004, he returned to the UCP in Lisbon, completing his education with a doctorate summa cum laude in Biblical Theology, focusing on a passage from the Gospel of Luke (7:36–50), which recounts the encounter between Jesus and the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. His dissertation advisor was the Jesuit exegete Jean-Noël Aletti. Later, from 2011 to 2012, he conducted research at the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice in New York.
During the first three years of his priestly ministry, he lived in Funchal, teaching at the diocesan seminary and ministering in the parish of Nossa Senhora do Livramento. In 1995, he moved to Lisbon, where he served as chaplain of the Catholic University for five years. In 2001, he was appointed rector of the Pontifical Portuguese College in Rome for two years. After earning his doctorate, he became a professor of New Testament and Theological Aesthetics in the Faculty of Theology at the UCP in Lisbon (2004–2018). During this time, he directed the theological studies journal Didaskalia (2005–2012) and the Center for Studies on Religions and Cultures (2012–2017) at the University. He also served as Rector of the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Bonança from 2010 to 2018.
In 2011, he was appointed a Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The following year, he became Vice-Rector of the UCP, while also serving as a visiting lecturer at Catholic universities in Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, as well as at the Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy and Theology in Belo Horizonte.
Cardinal Tolentino has published numerous volumes and articles in theology and exegesis, in addition to various poetic works that draw from literary and philosophical language. As an expert on the relationship between literature and theology, he represented Portugal at World Poetry Day in 2014 and has curated a weekly column titled “What Are the Clouds?” in the newspaper Expresso for several years.
In 2018, Pope Francis first chose him to preach the spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia in Ariccia from February 18 to 23, on the theme “In Praise of Thirst.” Then, on June 26, he appointed him Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, simultaneously elevating him to the titular See of Suava with the dignity of Archbishop.
On July 28, 2018, he received episcopal ordination in Lisbon from Cardinal Patriarch Manuel Clemente, with Cardinal António Augusto dos Santos Marto, Ordinary of Leiria-Fátima, and Teodoro de Faría, the Emeritus Bishop of Funchal, as co-consecrators. He chose the motto Considerate lilia agri, which means “Consider the lilies of the field,” taken from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:28).
On September 1, 2018, he began his new role, and on December 4, he welcomed the Pope during his visit to the Apostolic Library and the Vatican Apostolic Archive. Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça served as Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church until September 26, 2022.
On September 26, 2022, the Holy Father appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
He was created a Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of October 5, 2019, with the Diaconia of Saints Dominic and Sixtus.
He is a member of the following Dicasteries: for Bishops; for Evangelization, specifically the Section for Fundamental Questions of the Evangelization of the World; for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; for the Causes of Saints; and for the Doctrine of the Faith.