Pope’s Condolences on the Passing of Cardinal Cassidy

Olga Sakun – Vatican City

Pope Francis expressed his condolences on the passing of Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy. The telegram signed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal P. Parolin addressed to the Apostolic Nuncio in Australia, Adolfo Tito Ilyana, says that the Holy Father recalls with gratitude the years of Cardinal Cassidy’s precious service to the Holy See, his zeal in spreading the Gospel and in promoting Christian unity.

The newly reposed hierarch was born on July 5, 1924 in Sydney. He became a priest in 1949. Worked in the apostolic nunciatures in India, Ireland and Argentina; after his episcopal consecration in 1970, he was a pronuncio in Bangladesh and an apostolic delegate in Burma, and then an apostolic delegate to South Africa and apostolic pruncius in Lesotho.

In 1988 he joined the Vatican State Secretariat as Undersecretary of State for General Affairs, and from 1989 to 2001 was President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.