Jan Pieter Schotte (29 April 1928 - 10 January 2005) was a Belgian cardinal and an official of the Roman Curia. He was born on 29 April 1928 in the town of Beveren-Leie (now a part of Waregem) in the province of West Flanders. He entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (C.I.C.M. Missionaries) in 1946. He was ordained a priest in 1952. From 1953 to 1956 he studied canon law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and from 1962 to 1963 at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. From 1955 to 1962 he was professor of canon law at the C.I.C.M. theological seminary in Leuven and from 1957 to 1962 assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He was vice-rector of the C.I.C.M. theological seminary in