Posted on 07/05/2003 7:01:48 AM PDT by Loyalist
CARDINAL BAFILE CELEBRATES HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY TODAY
VATICAN CITY, JUL 4, 2003 (VIS) - At noon in the Clementine Hall, the Pope received in a special audience Cardinal Corrado Bafile, who turns 100 today, and members of his family. The cardinal was born in Aquila in the Abruzzi region of Italy.
In a letter for the occasion, dated June 19 and made public today, the Holy Father writes to the cardinal referring to his hundred years of life: "It is a truly significant milestone which Providence has allowed you to reach."
"I think especially about how you, having embraced the priesthood in your adult years, have always been at the service of the Holy See, carrying out important and delicate offices for long periods of time. After twenty years of much-appreciated work in the Secretariat of State, Blessed John XXIII ... appointed you as apostolic nuncio in Germany and consecrated you archbishop in 1960." After 15 years of diplomatic service in Bonn, Pope Paul VI "entrusted you with the task of directing the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints and included you among the members of the College of Cardinals. It was May 24, 1976."
John Paul II expressed his gratitude to Cardinal Bafile for all that he has done "as a generous and competent collaborator of mine and of my venerated predecessors. I would like to especially underscore the spiritual convictions that have always guided your actions. All of those who have had the privilege to be by your side not only in the service of the Apostolic See, but also in the Sodality of the 'Abruzzesi' in Rome and in the Legion of Mary, unanimously testify to the apostolic and priestly dedication that always has inspired your service in the different stages of your long life." AC/100TH BIRTHDAY/BAFILE VIS 030704 (290)
If Strom Thurmond could still vote in the U.S. Senate at 100, why can't cardinals older than 80 vote in conclave?
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