A "wise servant of the Church", who "played an extremely important role in the Church, at the side of the Pontiffs of the last part of the 20th century". This is how card. Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, defined card. Agostino Casaroli, speaking of his diplomatic work which "went with the papacies of as many as 5 Pontiffs": Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, whose secretary of state he was, as a "logical, rightful conclusion of a whole lifetime spent to serve the Holy See". In opening the Conference in the Vatican today, ten years after the demise of the illustrious cardinal, Bertone pointed out that his "patient and tiresome work" always aimed to "seek and build peace and to make sure the Church was in a position to carry out its work in freedom and peace". Card. Casaroli’s "pastoral and diplomatic work", which "largely coincides with the so-called ostpolitik of the Church", in Bertone’s opinion, "moves between two poles: the good of the Church and the pursuit of a possible dialogue". It was John XXIII, said Bertone, who began to send him as a "travelling ambassador" to the communist countries of the East; the one with Paul VI was "a consistent understanding, aimed to promote with every possible means the dialogue of the Church with the nations, including those that were hostile to it".
