Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - Venezuelan Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara has died in Caracas. The news was announced by Archbishop Ovidio Perez Morales of the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference. Cardinal Castillo Lara, who was 85, had been ill for some time and his condition had become worse in recent weeks, Archbishop Perez Morales said: “For the Catholic Church in Venezuela the Cardinal was synonymous to pride, an important shepherd for the country, a representative to the Holy See”.
Cardinal Rosalio José Castillo Lara, President emeritus president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and president emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, was born at San Casimiro, diocese of Maracay (Estado Aragua, Venezuela) on 4 September 1922. Ordained a priest in Caracas on 4 September 1949, on 26 March 1973 Pope Paul VI appointed him coadjutor Bishop of Trujillo in Venezuela. On 6 December 1989 he was appointed President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. John Paul II made him a Cardinal in the Concistory of 25 May 1985, with the titular see of Nuestra Senora of Coromoto in San Giovanni di Dio. (C.E.) (Agenzia Fides 17/10/2007; righe 14, parole 193)
