Eugênio Sales
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia (1968–71) | |
---|---|
Motto | Impendam et superimpendar |
Coat of arms |
Eugênio de Araújo Sales (8 November 1920 – 9 July 2012) was a
Early life and ordination
Sales was born in Acari, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil to a prominent upper-class family: his father, Celso Dantas Sales, was a judge in the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. Eugênio Sales did humanistic studies as a teenager and entered the minor seminary at Natal in 1936. After spending one year in the minor seminary, Sales graduated to the major seminary at Fortaleza, where he prepared to the priesthood from 1937 to 1943.
He was ordained to the priesthood on 21 November 1943, and spent the following decade in pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Natal.
Bishop
On 9 January 1962,
Bishop Sales attended all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965.
On 29 October 1968, Sales, until then apostolic administrator, was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia, becoming ex officio the Primate of Brazil.
Cardinal
Styles of Eugênio de Araújo Sales | |
---|---|
São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro (emeritus ) |
On the consistory of 28 April 1969, Pope Paul created Archbishop Sales a
Sales, then Metropolitan Archbishop of Salvador and Primate of Brazil was appointed papal legate to the Brazilian National Eucharistic Congress held in 1970 and in that capacity he presided over the aforementioned gathering, which took place in Brasília, the Nation's capital.
On 13 March 1971, Pope Paul VI transferred Sales to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Sales took possession of his new See on 27 March 1971. In 1972 Sales received the additional responsibility of Ordinary to the Faithful of Oriental Rite in Brazil without their own Ordinary.
As a Cardinal-elector, Sales
Sales led the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro for thirty years, between 1971 and 2001.
In the Roman Curia, Sales was appointed a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of Holy See in 1981.
While serving as Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Sales attended the II Ordinary Assembly of the
Chosen by Pope John Paul II, he served as president-delegate of the Special Synod of Bishops for America that was held in 1997.
In addition to his service as papal legate a latere in 1970 and of his legation as president delegate of the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops in 1997, Sales also served as Special Papal Envoy on three occasions: the first was when, in 1991, he presided over the 12th National Eucharistic Congress of Brazil held in the city of Natal; his second appointment as special papal envoy came after his retirement as Archbishop of Rio, when he represented the Pope during the celebrations held in Aparecida marking three events: the centennial of the Coronation of the image of
As of July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI held three days of prayer and reflection, each on the eve of an ordinary public consistory for the creation of new Cardinals. Although those days of prayer and reflection were not convoked as formal extraordinary consistories, all members of the College of Cardinals (electors and non-electors) were summoned to attend the meetings, together with the prelates that were about to be raised to the cardinalate. Sales attended all three of those meetings, on 23 March 2006, 23 November 2007 and 19 November 2010.
Retirement
In accordance with Canon Law, Sales tendered his resignation from the See of Rio de Janeiro when he became 75 years old in 1995, and he reiterated the letter of resignation a few times in the succeeding years, but Pope John Paul II only accepted Sales' resignation on 25 July 2001. Sales had already completed 80 years of age in the previous year and had thus lost, since 8 November 2000, the right to take part in a papal conclave and his membership in the
As is the normal practice, by mandate of the Holy See, Sales, now Archbishop
At the death of Pope John Paul II, Sales was the second-longest-serving cardinal in the Church and as such, although at 84 unable to vote in the
After the death of Cardinal Kim in February 2009, Sales became both the Cardinal
On 8 November 2010 the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro held celebrations to commemorate the Cardinal's 90th birthday; by the time of his 90th birthday, Sales was already the last living Cardinal created in the Consistory of 28 April 1969. He was thus the last living person to have been raised to the Cardinalate before the entry into force of the modern form of the Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI with the Constitution Missale Romanum.
Although retired, Sales still engaged in pastoral activities. He still kept the commitment of writing a weekly article on a topic of faith or morals, which was published in the O Globo newspaper, and as of March 2011 he was still often seen celebrating Mass on Sundays or other holy days in the parish church of Our Lady of Peace in the neighbourhood of Ipanema. That parish church is adjacent to a Church owned office building where Sales maintained an office.
In May 2011 the 90-year-old Cardinal stopped publishing his weekly articles in O Globo (he had written weekly articles for the newspaper for 40 years, since his installation as Archbishop of Rio in 1971) and, on his recommendation, the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Orani João Tempesta, was invited by the owners of the newspaper to continue the religious articles and he agreed to assume that task. Sales' last article was published on 25 April 2011.
Death
Sales died at age 91 during his sleep on 9 July 2012 from a heart attack.
Views
Protests against human rights violations
As Archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro from 1971, Sales protested the many human rights violations in
Fight against dissent
Following the fall of the military dictatorship and Pope John Paul II's reining in of theological dissent, Sales became the Church in Brazil's most prominent voice against what he saw as dissent from Catholic moral teaching in the country. In the 1990s he made many efforts to become a cultural leader in this struggle: going so far as to oppose the traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro with a "festival of prayer" which he saw as opposing trends towards sexual libertinism in modern Brazil.
References
- ^ Telegram For The Death Of Cardinal Eugenio De Araujo Sales Archived 9 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
External links
Media related to Eugênio Sales at Wikimedia Commons