Pope condoles German cardinal’s death

(April 30, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his condolences at the death of German Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer who passed away Friday morning in Rome at the age of 98. In a message to the abbot-primate of the Benedictine Confederation, Dom Notker Wolf, Pope Benedict recalled the late Benedictine cardinal’s zealous life spent in meekness and uprightness in coherent adhesion to his vocation as a monk and pastor full of zeal for the Gospel and ever faithful to the Church. While recalling Cardinal Mayer’s commitments in the fields of liturgy, university and the seminary, the Holy Father also expressed appreciation for his service, firstly in the preparatory commission for the Second Vatican Council and later in the various posts in the Vatican. Cardinal Mayer was born on May 23, 1911, in Altötting, Germany, and became a member of the Order of Saint Benedict in 1931. He was ordained priest in 1935 and in 1971 was appointed Secretary of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, his first post in the Vatican. The following year he was ordained bishop. In 1985 he was made cardinal and appointed Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He resigned from this post three years later, to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, a responsibility he held till 1991. With his death, the number of cardinals around the world now stands at 180, of whom 108 are below the age of 80 and hence are eligible to vote for a new pope at a conclave. Pope Benedict will be present at Cardinal Mayer’s funeral service in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Monday.