SW News: Cardinal Jozef Tomko, the oldest member of the College of Cardinals, entered eternal rest in Rome on August 8 at the age of 98. The Slovakian Cardinal was the prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. He was looked after by the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in his final days and died in his apartment in Rome.

He was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on June 25 because of a backbone injury. Later discharged from there on August 06, he was convalescing at home under the supervision of a nurse. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State had paid a visit to the sick top prelate while he was in the hospital.

The Slovakian Bishops’ conference urged the faithful to pray for the Cardinal. The episcopal conference in their message said "it is with a heavy heart and at the same time with the hope of resurrection that we announce that His Eminence Cardinal Jozef Tomko rendered his noble soul to the Lord today, August 8, 2022, in the early hours of the morning at his residence in Rome, surrounded by his closest associates.”

More clarifications about the timings of the funeral in Rome and the burial at St Elizabeth’s Cathedral in Kosice are yet to be disclosed, the bishops stated.

Cardinal Tomko was ordained a priest on March 12, 1949, in Rome’s Archbasilica of St John Lateran. He was appointed for pastoral work in many places and in 1962, he entered the Roman Curia. In 1979, Pope John Paull II appointed him as Secretary General of the World Synod of Bishops and Titular Archbishop of Doclea. Later in 1985, the Pope made him Cardinal-Deacon of Gesù Buon Pastore alla Montagnola. It was that year that he was named the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In 2001, Cardinal Tomko was appointed President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and in 2021 he became the oldest living member of the College of Cardinals after the death of Cardinal Albert Vanhoye of France