Cardinal Paolo Romeo, Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo, died on the morning of Sunday, October 25, at the age of 88, after a long illness, at the “San Marco” Hospital in Catania, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Palermo. In June he had been admitted to the same hospital, and the Sicilian Church had then promoted moments of prayer for his recovery.
The Archbishop of Palermo, Corrado Lorefice, invited prayer and recollection “entrusting his soul to the Lord, who will know how to reward him for the commitment with which he served his Church.” The Sicilian Episcopal Conference also expressed its condolences and asked the dioceses of the island to offer suffrages for the cardinal.
The lying in state will be set up on Tuesday, October 27, starting at 9:30 a.m., in the Cathedral Basilica of Acireale, his hometown, where a prayer vigil will be held at 8:00 p.m. The funeral will take place in the same cathedral on Wednesday, October 28, at 11:00 a.m., according to Vatican News.
Romeo was born in Acireale, in the province of Catania, on February 20, 1938, and was the fifth of nine siblings. He was trained at the seminary in his city and in 1959 was sent to Rome as a student at the Almo Collegio Capranica, where he obtained a licentiate in Theology from the Gregorian University and a doctorate in Canon Law from the Lateran University. He was ordained a priest on March 18, 1961.
In 1967 he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See and served in the pontifical representations in the Philippines, Belgium and Luxembourg, the European Communities, Venezuela, Rwanda and Burundi. In 1976 he returned to the Secretariat of State, to the then Council for the Public Affairs of the Church, from where he followed Catholic life in Latin America and the activity of CELAM.
In 1983 he was appointed titular Archbishop of Vulturia and Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, and received episcopal ordination from the hands of John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica on January 6, 1984. He later served as nuncio in Colombia (1990-1999) and in Canada (1999-2001), and in 2001 he began representing the Pope in Italy and the Republic of San Marino, a post he held until 2006.
On December 19, 2006, Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Palermo and Primate of Sicily, and he solemnly entered the archdiocese on February 10, 2007. The same Pope created him a cardinal in the consistory of November 20, 2010, with the title of Santa Maria Odigitria of the Sicilians. He participated in the conclave of March 2013 that elected Francis, and on October 27, 2015, he became Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo.
InfoVaticana already reported on his career when he turned 80 and lost the right to vote in a possible conclave. With his death, the College of Cardinals loses one of the cardinals created by Benedict XVI in 2010.