José Freire Falcão (; 23 October 1925 – 26 September 2021) was a Brazilian prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

who was archbishop of

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

from 1984 to 2004. He was created a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

in 1988.

Biography

José Freire Falcão was born on 23 October 1925, in Ererê in the state of Ceara. He entered the seminary in

Fortaleza Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

at the age of 14. He was ordained a priest on 19 June 1949. He was teaching at the seminary and leading the diocesan liturgy commission when, on 24 April 1967,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

named him titular bishop of Vardimissa and bishop coadjutor of

Limoeiro do Norte Limoeiro do Norte is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Ceará This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Ceará (CE), located in the Northeast Region of Bra ...

. He received his episcopal consecration on 17 June and succeeded as bishop on 19 August. He was transferred to the Archdiocese of Teresina on 25 November 1971.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed him archbishop of

on 15 February 1984 and created him a cardinal on 28 June 1988, assigning him as a cardinal priest to

San Luca a Via Prenestina The church of St. Luke the Evangelist is a church of Rome in Prenestino-Labicano district, in Largo San Luca Evangelista (via Roberto Malatesta). History It was built between 1955 and 1958 to a design by architects Lucio and Vincenzo Passarelli, ...

. He retired as archbishop of Brasília upon the appointment of his successor on 28 January 2004. He was one of the

cardinal electors A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Col ...

who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

. On 17 September 2021, Falcão was admitted to hospital as a precaution after being diagnosed with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 24 September, the Archdiocese of Brasilia announced Falcão's health had deteriorated, that he was intubated and in grave condition after suffering kidney and respiratory complications. He died from complications of the virus on 26 September 2021, at the age of 95. His Funeral

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

and burial in the crypt of the cathedral took place the next day.

References

External links

*
José Falcão Freire
* 1925 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Brazil Brazilian cardinals Cardinals created by Pope John Paul II People from Ceará Roman Catholic archbishops of Brasília Roman Catholic archbishops of Teresina Roman Catholic bishops of Limoeiro do Norte Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Federal District (Brazil) {{Brazil-RC-archbishop-stub