VATICAN - Friday 14 January the Pope will preside a funeral Mass for Cardinal Jan Pieter Schotte in St Peter’s Basilica

Wednesday, 12 January 2005

Vatican City (Fides Service) - On Friday 14 January at 11 am in St Peter’s Basilica Pope John Paul II will preside the funeral Mass for Cardinal Jan Pieter Schotte, C.I.C.M., former Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, President of the Labour Office of the Apostolic See who died on January 10 in a hospital in Rome. The Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals.
In a telegramme to the Cardinal’s family the Pope recalled “his generous collaboration with the Holy See for so many years and especially his service as Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops”. Offering his condolences to the family and to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Scheut Missionaries), Pope John Paul II said that Cardinal Schotte “leaves an example of a life spent for Christ, and coherent adhesion to his priestly and religious vocation always attentive to social problems in full fidelity to the Gospel and the teaching of the Church”
Cardinal Jan Pieter Schotte, was born on 29 April 1928 at Beveren-Leie, diocese of Brugge, in Belgium. He entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Scheut Missionaries) in 1946, in Brussels and was ordained a priest on 3 August 1952. After studies in Canon Law, he was vice Rector, Rector and Professor in various seminaries in Belgium and the United States of America. In 1967 he came to Rome having been appointed General Secretary of his Congregation. During this period he was concerned with social and international questions holding several important posts in various bodies while being intensely involved in activities at the service of the Holy See. Appointed titular Bishop of Silli on 20 December 1983, he was ordained a Bishop by John Paul II on 6 January1984. On 24 April 1985 he was appointed Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops and promoted as Archbishop. When the Labour office of the Apostolic See was instituted on 14 April 1989 he was appointed as its President. He was made a Cardinal by John Paul II on 26 November 1994, of the deanery of St Julian of the Flemmish. As Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops until 11 February 2004, he organised among other things unprecedented Special Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops for Europe (1991 and 1999), Africa (1994), Lebanon (1995), America (1997), Asia (1998), Oceania (1998). A member of the Papal entourage for many Papal visits, he was a member of Holy See delegations to various international meetings. He was a member of the congregations for the: Bishops, Evangelisation of Peoples, Causes of Saints; pontifical commissions: for Latin America, Vatican City State; Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura; the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 12/1/2005; righe 33, parole 439)


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