Italian Cardinal Felici, longtime Vatican official, dies at age 87
Jun 20, 2007
A longtime Vatican diplomat and former head of the Vatican's Congregation for Saints' Causes, Italian Cardinal Angelo Felici, died June 17. He was 87.
VATICAN CITY (CNS, Jun-18-2007) -- Pope Benedict XVI praised the late cardinal for his "precious collaboration" in working on behalf of the Vatican.
In two separate telegrams, one to the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and another to Bishop Vincenzo Apicella of Velletri-Segni, the pope expressed his sadness over Cardinal Felici's death.
The pope highlighted the late cardinal's "generous dedication and recognized competence" in the offices in which he served.
Cardinal Felici headed the saints' congregation between 1988 and 1995.
In a written public statement in 1992, he defended the Vatican against accusations that the congregation had rushed the sainthood cause of Msgr. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei who was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2002.
From 1995 to 2000, Cardinal Felici headed the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which cares for Catholics who were followers of excommunicated French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Before heading the Vatican offices, Cardinal Felici spent 43 years teaching and practicing Vatican diplomacy.
He was born in Segni, a town on the outskirts of Rome, July 26, 1919, and entered the church's diplomatic school 22 years later.
Besides learning the ins and outs of Vatican diplomacy, he received a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
In July 1945 he was assigned as a desk officer in the section of the Secretariat of State that handles relationships with governments. In 1964, he was named undersecretary of the section.
From 1961 to 1966, he returned to the diplomatic school as a teacher of the techniques of diplomacy.
Cardinal Felici's first major overseas assignment was to conduct a 10-day fact-finding mission for the Vatican in Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day War, which pitted Israel against Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
Shortly after returning from Jerusalem, he was given his first diplomatic post abroad. Pope Paul VI named him ambassador to the Netherlands at a time when the Dutch church, in the wake of reforms by the Second Vatican Council, was in the vanguard of a campaign for more sweeping changes in church life.
The cardinal held the post until 1976, when he was named nuncio to Portugal, and in 1979 he was named nuncio to France.
Pope John Paul II made the career diplomat a cardinal in 1988 and named him head of the saints' congregation soon after.
Cardinal Felici's death leaves the College of Cardinals with 183 members, 105 of whom are under age 80 and, therefore, eligible to vote in a conclave.
Italian Cardinal Felici, longtime Vatican official, dies at age 87