THE PRESIDENT HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GIANFRANCO RAVASI Cardinal, P re sident of the Pontifical Cou ncil f or Culture and of the Pontifical Commissio n of Sacr ed Ar chaeology. Born in 1942 at Merat e (Lecco, Italy), he is a n expert on the bible and biblical languag e s, and before coming to Rome he was Pr ef ect of the Biblioteca-Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan and tau ght Ol d Testament Exege sis at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy. He has some 150 volumes published mainly on biblical topics: editions on the Psalms a nd the Book of Job , t he S ong of Songs and Eccle siasticus. He has also earned popular fame for his writings B reve storia dell’anima ( Mondadori, 2003), Le sorgenti di Dio (San Pao lo , 2005), Ritorno all e virtù (Mondadori, 2 00 5) , Le porte del peccato (Mondadori, 2007), 5 00 curiosità della fede (Mondadori, 2009) , Questioni di fede (Mondadori 2010) and Le P aro le del mattino ( Mondadori 2011). A full bibliogr ap hy of his writings in Italian is given here . Cardinal Ravasi collaborates with newspa pe rs - for fifteen years he wrote for the d aily paper A vvenire and currently writes fo r L’O sservatore Romano and Il Sole 24 Ore - a nd has his own te levi sion activity with the Sun da y programme Le frontiere dello Spirito on the Italian mainstream Canale 5 . In 2007 the Universit y of Urbino g ave him the Laurea h. c. in Anthropology a nd Epistem ology of R eli gions. And in 201 0 he was enrolled as an honorary member of th e Accademia delle Bel le A rti di Brera and given at the same time the Honoris Causa o f the Diploma di Secondo Livello in Comun icazion e e Didattica dell’Arte. Key Texts in English: The Dicastery: -1- -2-