(30 Apr 10 – RV) Pope Benedict XVI has sent a telegram of condolence to the Abbot
Primate of the Benedictine Order, Notker Wolf, on the death of Cardinal Paul Augustin
Mayer, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the
Sacraments. At 99 years of age he had been the oldest living member of the College
of Cardinals.
In the telegram,
Pope Benedict writes that Cardinal Mayer leaves behind the “indelible memory” of an
“active life of meekness and righteousness spent in coherent adherence to his monastic
vocation”. The Pope also describes him as “a pastor full of zeal for the Gospel and
ever faithful to the Church”.
A native of Bavaria, Germany, Cardinal Mayer
was Born in 1911. Hejoined the Order of Saint Benedict at the Abbey of St. Michael,
Metten, in 1931, taking the name of Augustin. After his ordination to the priesthood,
he was transferred to Rome to be a faculty member at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum
of Sant'Anselmo, serving as its rector from 1949 until 1966. It was during this period
that he served as Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the Second Vatican Council.
He was appointed Secretary of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes
on 8 September 1971. He was created and proclaimed Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Anselmo
all'Aventino in the consistory of May 25, 1985. He was named full Prefect of the Congregation
two days later. He presided over the unification of two district congregations that
were united under one name from 1988 on.
The funeral mass for Cardinal Mayer
will be held in St Peter’s basilica on Monday May 3rd at 11.30 am. It
will be presided over by the Dean of the College of Cardinals Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
With the death of Cardinal Mayer, the College of Cardinals counts 180 Cardinals
in all, of whom 108 are eligible to vote in conclave.