“I give thanks to the Father in heaven for his episcopal ministry in which he lavished himself with generosity in leading the people entrusted to him along the paths of the Gospel, with the same zeal with which he carried out his previous services,” the pope wrote.
The National Bishops’ Conference of Brazil (CNBB) noted that Falcão was the second Brazilian cardinal to have died after testing positive for the coronavirus. It said that the first was Cardinal Eusébio Oscar Scheid, the archbishop emeritus of Rio de Janeiro, who died on Jan. 13 at the age of 88.
The bishops’ conference said that Falcão was taken to Santa Lúcia Hospital in Brazil’s federal capital on Sept. 17 as a precautionary measure after his positive test. His condition deteriorated on Sept. 24 and he died on Sept. 26.
The cardinal is due to be buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of Brasília, which was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and completed in 1970.
José Freire Falcão was born on Oct. 23, 1925, in Ererê, in Brazil’s Northeast Region. He was ordained a priest in Limoeiro do Norte, in the state of Ceará, on June 19, 1949.
In April 1967, he was appointed coadjutor bishop of Limoeiro do Norte, succeeding as bishop in August of that year. He took the episcopal motto “Serve in humility.”
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