Pope Francis expressed his “shock” at the death, at age 85, of the Italian Cardinal Eugenio Dal Corso, who gave his life as a missionary in Latin America and Africa.
According to reports Vatican Newsthe cardinal and bishop emeritus of Benguela (Angola), died on Sunday, October 20, in the house of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence of Negrar, near Verona, home of the congregation to which he belonged and where he had lived for some time. years.
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“The death of Cardinal Eugeni dal Corso, spiritual son of Saint John Calabria, has stirred up my spirit, remembering him as a faithful religious in Italy and a zealous missionary in Argentina and Angola, where he was named Bishop of Saurimo and then of Benguela,” he points out. the Holy Father in telegram sent to the Bishop of Verona, Mons. Domenico Pompili.
Cardinal Dal Corso, wrote Pope Francis, “has served the Lord and the Church, dedicating himself especially to the weakest and most fragile people, to whom he has witnessed the love of Christ.”
“I raise my prayer for the soul of this good servant, so that accompanied by the Virgin Mary, he may be welcomed into the eternal banquet of Heaven and I send my blessing to the Congregation of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence, to the diocese of Verona, to the family members and to those who share the pain of his departure,” concludes the Holy Father.
Vatican News specifies that the funeral of Cardinal Dal Corso will take place this Thursday, October 24 at 2:30 p.m. (local time) in the cathedral of Verona and will be presided over by Bishop Pompili.
Who was Cardinal Eugenio Dal Corso?
Eugenio Dal Corso, indicates Vatican News, was born on May 16, 1939 in the neighborhood called Corso (Verona), from which he took his surname, while his name is a tribute to Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), elected Pope that year. .
At the age of 10 he entered as an aspirant for the priesthood in a house of the congregation of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence.
He made his first vows on September 8, 1959. He began his missionary work in 1975 in various places in Italy, and then traveled to Argentina, specifically in the city of Laferrere, where he founded the parish dedicated to Our Lady of Peace.
He was in Angola during the civil war, first in the diocese of Uige, on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then in Luanda, the capital, where he ran a primary school, a middle school, a hospital and a house for his family. congregation.
On December 15, 1995 he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Saurimo; and in 2008 Bishop of Benguela, where he served until 2018. However, he did not stop helping the diocese of Menongue, one of the poorest in Angola.
Pope Francis created him a cardinal in 2019, when he was 80 years old.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.