Argentina: The oldest cardinal in the world celebrates 70 years of priesthood

Cardinal Estanislao Esteban Karlic, Archbishop Emeritus of Paraná (Argentina) is, for a few months, the oldest in the world, after the death of Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento, Archbishop Emeritus of Luanda.

At 98 years old, this Sunday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Cardinal Karlic celebrates 70 years of priesthood, an anniversary that he will celebrate with the celebration of the Eucharist, that great treasure that has been part of his life since December 8, 1954. daily and without exception.

It is an “unusual anniversary,” says a writing prepared by his personal secretary Haydeé Copati and published on the website of the Archbishopric of Paraná, especially considering that his ordination was at the age of 29. “There are few priests who manage to complete such a number of years in the ministry,” he observes.

70 years after his ordination, the cardinal spoke with ACI Prensa. “How much I have to be grateful to God, who has made me a priest, for his glory and the good of all!” he exclaimed.

The greatest fruit of his priesthood, he assures, is “fidelity to the ministry,” and the secret to sustaining that fidelity, he maintains, is “recognizing that it is a free gift from God.”

Asked about the difficulties in the priesthood, he acknowledged: “Perseverance in obedience is difficult,” while clarifying: “But the grace of God did not fail me… Just because I am aware of the difficulty does not mean that I am not aware.” that I can overcome it with God who accompanies me.”

In this framework, he assures young people who may feel called to the priesthood today “that the Lord will accompany them in all their difficulties with his superabundant grace.”

The cardinal, born in 1926 in the town of Oliva, province of Córdoba, discovered his vocation in the ranks of Catholic Action, and entered the seminary when he was 22 years old.

Towards the end of 1948, the then Bishop of Córdoba, Mons. Fermín Lafitte, sent him to study Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, with residence at the Colegio Pío Latinoamericano, in Rome. Among his fellow students was the now Blessed Enrique Angelelli.

His date of priestly ordination was brought forward a few months, to coincide with the closing day of the first Universal Marian Year, which was celebrated between 1953 and 1954, to commemorate the centenary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

The ceremony took place in the early hours of Wednesday, December 8, 1954, at the

chapel of the Pío Latinoamericano College, in the vicinity of Castel Sant’Angelo. There were 15 ordained, only two of them Argentinian, the review states.

The Mass was presided over by the then Archbishop of Paraná, Mons. Zenobio Guilland, who was passing through Rome and, without knowing it, was

ordaining one of his successors.

Karlic was accompanied by one of the nuns who owned the pension where he spent his adolescence in Córdoba, and some members of the Argentine Catholic Action.

“Even in the faded memories that he has today, the cardinal remembers with particular affection that the ornaments for the celebration were provided to him by his spiritual father, the Jesuit priest Hugo de Achával,” says the aforementioned text. They were the ones he himself had used at his ordination. He also remembers that after the Mass, as a celebration with his superiors and colleagues, they shared a breakfast.

That same day the closing of the Universal Marian Year took place in San Pedro.

Seventy years later, Cardinal Karlic can say that “he never stopped celebrating the Holy Mass, even in the midst of the greatest difficulties,” for example, when he was admitted to intensive care following his second surgery due to cancer. There he also asked for the ornaments to be able to celebrate, but that was not possible. However, his doctor moved him that same day to a common room, where celebrating the Eucharist was his first request.

“Son of God, priest forever,” Karlic repeats at almost 99 years old.