Aloisio Lorscheider, Brazilian Cardinal,83
DGH
Brazilian Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, 83
Aloisio Lorscheider, 83, one of Latin America's most influential
cardinals, died December 23 [2007] in Brazil.
He was hospitalized in early December with a heart condition, the
Aparecida Archdiocese said in a statement without giving more details.
Agence France-Presse reported that he had fallen into a coma after a
heart attack several weeks ago.
Cardinal Lorscheider was a two-time president of the National
Conference of Brazilian Bishops. He played an influential role in the
two papal conclaves of 1978 and pushed for the election of Cardinal
Karol Wojtyla of Poland, who became Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal Lorscheider created a stir in Brazil in 1998 when he doubted
the healing effects of rice-paper pills linked to Friar Galvao, who
this year became Brazil's first native-born saint. Shortly after
Galvao was beatified, a key step toward sainthood, Cardinal
Lorscheider, then the archbishop of Aparecida do Norte, ordered nuns
to stop making what he called "small pieces of paper that foster
superstition."
"Those pills are like the fake medicines that miracle workers claim
could cure all diseases," Cardinal Lorscheider said.
Thousands of believers still flock to the 18th-century Luz Monastery
every day for the pills, three of which must be swallowed over a nine-
day period.
Cardinal Lorscheider was born October 8, 1924, in Picada Geraldo, Rio
Grande do Sul state. He became archbishop of Fortaleza in 1973, and in
1976, he was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
After the death of Paul VI, Cardinal Lorscheider reportedly helped
lobby other Third World cardinals to vote for the patriarch of Venice,
who became Pope John Paul I. After the pope died 33 days after his
election, Cardinal Lorscheider pushed for the election of Wojtyla.
Cardinal Lorscheider led the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops
from 1971 until 1978. He also presided over the Latin American
Episcopal Council in 1976. He retired as head of the Aparecida
Archdiocese in 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/25/AR2007122501309.html