José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça TOSD, ComSE, ComIH (born 15 December 1965) is a Portuguese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

He next served the parish of Santa Isabel in Lisbon and then became rector of the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Bonanza, better known as Capela do Rato, in 2010.

He made his initial rite of admission to and received the habit from Father José Nunes, the prior provincial for the Portuguese Dominicans.

[6] During the academic year 2011–12, he was a Straus Fellow at New York University, joining an international team of researchers working on the theme "Religion and Public Reason".

[11][12] Besides the Bible, his comments referenced many writers, such as Fernando Pessoa, Roland Barthes, Clarice Lispector, Françoise Dolto, Etty Hillesum and Blaise Pascal.

[13] In January 2020, de Mendonça was part of the scientific commission for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death (1265-1321) organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

[14] In February 2020, Pope Francis appointed de Mendonça as a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, chaired by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.

[15] On 13 June 2020, de Mendonça is laureate of Prémio Europeu Helena Vaz da Silva because of "the ability he shows in spreading beauty and poetry as part of the intangible cultural heritage of Europe and the world".

[16] Under the leadership of Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça, as part of the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Modern Art Collection of the Vatican Museums, the Dicastery of Culture and Education is the main organiser of a meeting between Pope Francis and some two hundred representatives of the cultural world, artists, writers, composers, musicians, actors, architects, etc.

As a theologian and religious thinker, he has sought to discover spiritual life in places which have not always been looked at, and he has striven to encourage the Church to be more relevant and more engaged there.

[19][20][21][22] At the end of June 2018, Pope Francis named de Mendonça Vatican archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church as of 1 September and appointed him titular archbishop of Suava.

[25] On 17 November 2020, Pope Francis appointed de Mendonça a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples presided over by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle.

[26] On 30 April 2022, Pope Francis appointed de Mendonça a member of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro.