Vatican
City, 5 June 2014 (VIS) – At 11.30 this morning, at the major altar of St.
Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals,
presided at the funeral mass for Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy, prefect emeritus of
the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, who died on Monday in Rome at the
age of 90.
In
his homily, the dean of the College of Cardinals described Cardinal Lourdusamy
as “a zealous priest who worked for more than ten years in his beloved diocese
of Pondicherry and then, for almost a decade, was pastor of the archdiocese of
Bangalore. He then generously accepted Pope Paul VI’s call to Rome, to serve in
the missionary Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Here, for twenty years, he
dedicated his energies to the great cause of the evangelisation of peoples,
until finally, submitting to the trials of illness, he continued to serve the
Church in prayer and suffering, with an attitude of great serenity”.
Following the Eucharistic celebration, the Holy
Father administered the rites of “Uitima Commendatio” and “Valedictio”.