Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a Vatican official who led attempts to reconcile traditionalists Catholics to Rome, has died at the age of 88.
The Colombian prelate served as Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy and President of the Pontifical Ecclesial Commission, Ecclesia Dei, the body which led negotiations with the Society of Saint Pius X.
Under Benedict XVI, Cardinal Castrillon played an influential role in the retired Pope’s 2009 decision to lift the excommunications on four of the society’s bishops, who had been ordained in 1988 without Holy See approval.
That decision, however, caused uproar when it turned out that one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, was a holocaust denier. Neither the cardinal, nor the Pope, was aware of Williamson’s views. The decision to lift the excommunications came soon after a 2007 papal ruling to lift restrictions on the celebration of the Old Rite of the Mass.
Both these moves were designed to heal the rift with the society, the only fracture to Church unity that occurred following the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council. The traditionalist group – founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre – remain in a legal limbo despite repeated attempts by every Pope since the council to re-instate them.
Born on 4 July 1929 in Medellin, Colombia, the future cardinal was a towering figure in the Latin American church, a multi-lingual polyglot who had a doctorate in Canon Law and studied sociology, economics and politics.
He was renowned as an energetic and fearless pastor, who as Bishop of Pereira would walk the streets at midnight to distribute food to children he found there. He also stood up to drug traffickers and on one occasion disguised himself as a milkman in order to gain access to the home of drug lord, Pablo Escobar. When Escobar asked who had sent him, Castrillon replied: “The one who will judge you.”
During the meeting the bishop managed to hear the confession of Escobar, and tried to persuade him to give up his drugs and fortune if the government allowed him to stay in Colombia. In the end the government refused but later, as Archbishop of Bucaramanga, he developed a reputation as a mediator between the guerrillas and the government.
According to an essay by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the cardinal collected six rifle cartridges from both sides that he had collected, had them mounted and named them: “Bullets of peace”.
While he had a passion for social justice, the cardinal was an opponent of liberation theology which was spreading across Latin America in the 1970s and 80s. The Vatican also viewed this with suspicion, and saw an ally in Cardinal Castrillon.
This, in part, saw his promotion up the church hierarchy and in 1996, John Paul II called him to Rome to lead the Congregation for Clergy, naming him a cardinal two years later. When the abuse scandal broke Cardinal Castrillon once again found himself at the centre of controversy when in it was revealed in 2001 that he praised a French bishop for not handing an abusive priest over to police. The cardinal later claimed to have been acting with John Paul II’s blessing.
While in Rome, the cardinal became convinced that the traditionalists should be brought back into the Church after being impressed by the piety on display of a group on a pilgrimage to Rome which he witnessed from his office overlooking St Peter's Square.
He later presided over high profile celebrations of Mass in the Old Rite including in 2008 in Westminster Cathedral where he processed into the cathedral wearing the Cappa Magna, a long train of red watered silk. He was the first cardinal to celebrate a Mass in the pre-Vatican II extraordinary from in 40 years, and at a press conference beforehand announced that the old rite liturgy should be introduced into every parish in England and Wales.
In a telegram following the news of the cardinal’s death, the Pope praised him for his “generous service” to the Church and in particular his collaboration with the Holy See.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, who was appointed by Pope Francis as the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in November 2014, paid tribute on Twitter to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. "I pray for the repose of the soul of a great, good and faithful servant of the church, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who returned to the Father last night in Rome," Cardinal Sarah tweeted this morning.
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