Retired cardinal dies at age 91

MANILA, Philippines - Eight days shy of his 92nd birthday, retired Jose Cardinal Sanchez died early yesterday of multiple organ failure at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Medical Center in San Juan City.

Sanchez, prefect emeritus of the Congregation of the Clergy, died at 4:50 a.m. He had been confined in hospital since last week and would have turned 92 on March 17.

CBCPNews, the news service provider of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), reported that Sanchez’s nephew Manolo said that the Cardinal had been confined intermittently.

“He was brought to University of Santo Tomas last Feb. 11 and went home after two weeks,” he said.

His remains were at the Dominican Daughters of the Immaculate Mother Chapel in Commonwealth Ave., Quezon City yesterday, but by 5 a.m. today, he would be transferred to the Cathedral-Shrine of the Good Shepherd, Regalado Ave., Fairview Park, Quezon City.

Ursus de Quiros, Sanchez’s nephew who is the present secretary to the Catanduanes Provincial Board, said that his uncle had requested his lawyer to include in his last will that his body should not be touched once he dies and should remain intact until buried.

“If the lawyer, the Church leaders, and his relatives would follow his last will, then we need to bury him after two days. But what I know is there is an ongoing discussion over this issue among the concerned parties,” De Quiros told a radio station in Legazpi City in Bicol.

Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias asked the public not to send flowers but urged them to send donations to his favorite concerns: the support of vocations to the priesthood and/or consecrated (religious) life.

A funeral Mass will be held on Monday, 12 March, at 10 a.m., which would be presided over by retired Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, who would also be the homilist.

Aside from the regular Masses in the Cathedral on Sundays and weekdays, two more Masses would be added at 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.

CBCP president Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said that the late cardinal was a source of pride for the country.

Sanchez was the first Filipino prelate to be appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in the Vatican in 1991.

A priest for over 65 years, a bishop for over 43 years and a cardinal for more than 20 years, Cardinal Sanchez was the fifth Filipino named to the College of Cardinals after Archbishop Rufino Jiao Cardinal Santos of Manila (March 28, 1960), Archbishop Julio Ras Cardinal Rosales of Cebu (April 28, 1969), Archbishop Jaime L. Sin of Manila (May 24, 1976) and Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Jamin Vidal (May 25, 1985).

Sanchez was born in Pandan, Catanduanes on March 17, 1920 and ordained priest in Naga City on May 12, 1946. He rose from being assistant pastor of San Raphael Parish, Legazpi City to vicar general, diocese of Legazpi.

Later he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Caceres, Bishop of Lucena, then Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.

He was appointed secretary to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and later as Prefect of Congregation of the Clergy on July 1, 1991.

Malacañang expressed its condolences to the Catholic Church over the death of Cardinal Sanchez.

“We join the Catholic faithful in mourning the loss of His Eminence Jose Cardinal Sanchez, Archbishop Emeritus of Nueva Segovia,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte read from a prepared statement.

“The loss of Cardinal Sanchez will be deeply felt by the Catholic Church the world over,” she told reporters in a briefing. – With Delon Porcalla