NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

    VATICAN CITY, NOV 14 (ZENIT).- On Friday, Nov. 12, in the traditional Mass for the repose of souls, which the Holy Father offers every year at the beginning of November at the altar of the chair of St. Peter, John Paul II prayed for the Cardinals and Bishops who have died this past year. They are an "example that inspires confirmation of faith in Christ, from whom one receives the consoling certainty that death is a passage to eternal life," the Pope said.

    Three Cardinal died this year. Cardinal Carlos Oviedo Cavada, Archbishop of Santiago, Chile; his successor, Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez; and Cardinal George Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, England.

    Their deaths reduces to 154 the number of members of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Also in 1999, some 111 Bishops died, bringing the number of Bishops worldwide to 4,466.

    "To all these deceased prelates we direct our heartfelt thoughts and gratitude," the Pope said.

    In all, 23 Cardinals and numerous Bishops and clergy from the Roman Curia, concelebrated Mass with John Paul II under Bernini's Gloria. The principal concelebrants were Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. ZE99111205

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