Cottier was born in Carouge, Switzerland, on 25 April 1922 and took his vows as a member of the Dominican Order on 4 July 1946. Cottier studied theology and philosophy at the Pontificium Athenaeum Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, until 1952 obtaining a baccalaureate in philosophy and a licentiate in theology.[1] While there he was ordained a priest on 2 July 1951.
As papal theologian, he participated in the development of works authored by the pope, either drafting, researching, or editing. In 2004, Cottier told an interviewer: "Going back to the early years, the first “big” text I worked on was the social encyclical Centesimus annus. And then the Ut unum sint on ecumenicalism, the moral encyclical Veritatis splendor, and the Fides et ratio... also the Catechism of the Catholic Church."[2]
He was appointed titular archbishop of Tullia in 2003 and received his episcopal consecration on 20 October 2003 to meet the requirement that only bishops be cardinals. The next day, 21 October, Pope John Paul II made him Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Domenico e Sisto.[3]
His service as papal theologian ended on 1 December 2005.[4][5]
After ten years, he exercised his option to become a member of the order of cardinal priests, to which Pope Francis gave his consent on 12 June 2014.[6]
In the run-up to President Barack Obama's 10 July 2009 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, Cottier praised Obama's “humble realism” in recognizing that the president's "words move in the direction of reducing the evil [of abortion]," and in this manner might align to the thinking of St. Thomas Aquinas and early Christian tradition in terms of framing laws in a pluralistic society.[8]
Cottier reacted to John Paul II's encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia by saying that the Catholic Church rejects the concept of open communion.[9] Cottier defended the Church's view that the embryo is fully a human being.[10]
He came out in defense of Pope Pius XII against those who continue to criticize his legacy.[11]
Cottier was critical of anonymous Christianity, saying that a theological system that absorbs all realities into Christ ends by turning Christ into a kind of metaphysical postulate of the affirmation of human values, which makes the Church incapable of engaging in serious dialogue, even on the level of human rights. Then, saying that everybody is already of Christ, whether they know it or not, can make the mission futile.[12]
Cottier said that the use of condoms may be morally licit in the context of fighting AIDS.[13]
