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Italian Cardinal Bafile celebrates 100th birthday with pope
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Italian Cardinal Corrado Bafile celebrated his 100th birthday July 4 in
a special audience with family and friends and Pope John Paul II.
The prelate, the oldest living cardinal, spent more than 40 years in Vatican service, first as
a diplomat and later as head of the Congregation for Saints' Causes until his retirement in 1980.
During a July 4 gathering in the Apostolic Palace, the 83-year-old pontiff told the
cardinal that God had granted him the "singular privilege" of seeing virtually the entire 20th century
and entering into the third millennium.
"I would like to underscore above all the high spiritual convictions that have always
guided your activities," the pope told him.
Cardinal Bafile was born July 4, 1903, in the Italian city of L'Acquila. He was ordained
a priest at the age of 32 and immediately went to work at the Vatican's secretariat of state.
Blessed Pope John XXIII chose him to serve as a close personal aide and later appointed him to serve as
his representative in Germany, where he worked for 15 years.
Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal in 1976.
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