Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, President emeritus of the Governorate of Vatican City State and President emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, was born on 1 October 1942 in Foglizzo, in the Province of Turin, Italy.

He was ordained a priest on29 June 1966. He holds a licence in pastoral theology, a doctorate in canon law and studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.

He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1971 and served at the pontifical representations in Sudan, Turkey, Venezuela and at the Holy See mission to the United Nations in Geneva.

On 17 October 1987, he was nominated titular Archbishop of Urbisaglia and pro-nuncio in Ghana, in Togo and in Benin. He received episcopal ordination on 28 November 1987.

On 12 January 1991, he became apostolic nuncio in Rwanda, in the most acute phase of the civil war between the Hutus and the Tutsis. In March 1995 he was appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva and on 9 August 1997 to the World Trade Organization.

On 27 December 2000, he was appointed apostolic nuncio in Mexico. In this capacity he welcomed Pope John Paul II on his fifth visit to the country in 2002.

On 11 January 2007, he was appointed apostolic nuncio in Italy and in the Republic of San Marino.

From 3 September 2011 until 1 October 2021 he was President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.

On 13 April 2013 he was made a member of the Council of cardinals established to advise Pope Francis in the government of the universal Church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, ‘Pastor Bonus’.

Appointed by Pope Francis, he participated in the III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 2014) on The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization and in the XIV Ordinary General Assembly on The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World (October 2015).

He participated in the conclave of March 2013, which elected Pope Francis.  

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Benedict XVI in the consistory of 18 February 2012, of the Title of Santi Vito, Modesto e Crescenzia (Sts. Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia), Deaconry elevated pro hac vice to Presbyteral title (4 March 2022).