Pope’s condolences on Cardinal Foley’s death

(December 12, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI on Monday expressed his sadness on the death of United States Cardinal John Foley, who for many years headed the Vatican’s communications office. The 76-year old cardinal died in Philadelphia on Sunday after a battle with leukemia. In a condolence message to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia Pope Benedict gratefully recalled Cardinal Foley’s years of priestly ministry in his Archdiocese of Philadephia, his distinguished service to the Holy See as President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and most recently his labours on behalf of the Christian communities of the Holy Land. The Holy Father prayed that that late cardinal’s lifelong commitment to the Church’s presence in the media will inspire others to take up this apostolate so essential to the proclamation of the Gospel and the progress of the new evangelization. It was Pope John Paul II who called Cardinal Foley, then a priest, to Rome in 1984 making him the president of what was then called the Pontifical Commission of Social Communications, which in 1988 became the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He was also in charge of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Vatican Television Centre CTV and the Vatican Film Library. Pope Benedict XVI made him cardinal in 2007, nominating him the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a responsibility he relinquished on retirement in August this year. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi described Cardinal Foley as a man “truly of great spiritual level." "He incarnated, in the best way, the friendly, open, attentive relationship, of the Church in the world of social communications, not so much as an 'impersonal' world, but as a world of persons," said the Jesuit priest who also directs Vatican Radio and CTV.