Cardinal John P. Foley died in Darby (PA), United States, on 11 Dec. 2011. He was 76 years old and had been battling leukemia for several years.
Ordained a priest in 1962, he was called to Rome by Pope John Paul II in 1984 to serve as president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and of the Vatican TV and Film Centers. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI made him a Cardinal and appointed him Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
Upon receiving the news of the Cardinal’s death, Fr. Federico Lombardi, Director of the Vatican Press Office, released the following statement: “I am convinced that Cardinal Foley personified to the best of his abilities the Church’s friendly, open and attentive relationship with the world of social communications, not in an impersonal way but with a personal concern for those at work in it. He carried out this specific role within the Roman Curia and on the level of the Universal Church, competently explaining to everyone what was going on in the world of communications and how it was developing. He was a friend and colleague to all those at work in this field.”
And it is in this way that we Daughters of St. Paul want to remember him.