Pope John XXIII appointed Daniélou a "peritus" of the Second Vatican Council. In 1969 Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal. As a result he was ordained to the episcopal titular see of Taormina, and assigned the title of Cardinal-Deacon of San Saba, a Jesuit-run parish in Rome. Rather like his theology professor Henri de Lubac Daniélou twice refused the cardinalate but he eventually accepted at the insistence of Paul VI. He was elected to the Académie française on 9 November 1972, to succeed Cardinal Eugène Tisserant.