Sunday, September 30, 2007

Polish Jesuit Cardinal Adam Kozlowiecki Dead At 96

Polish missionary cardinal dead at 96
Lusaka, Sep. 28, 2007 (CWNews.com) Link (here)

Cardinal Adam Kozlowiecki, a Polish-born Jesuit missionary who spent most of his life in Africa, died on September 28 at the age of 96. Born in Huta Komorowska, Poland, Adam Kozlowiecki was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1937. During World War II he was imprisoned by the Nazi regime, spending time at both Dachau and Auschwitz. (At the latter concentration camp his fellow inmates included St. Maximillian Kolbe.) After the way he traveled to southern Africa as a missionary. In 1955 he was appointed apostolic administrator of Lusaka, Zambia, and in 1959, when Lusaka was raised to the status of an archdiocese, he became the first archbishop. He resigned that post in 1969, saying that a native African should take the post. (The results were unfortunate; he was succeeded in Lusaka by Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, whose erratic behavior led to his own resignation in 1983 and his excommunication in September 2006.) In a message of condolence addressed the to current Archbishop of Lusaka, Telesphore Mpundu, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) described Cardinal Kozlowiecki as a "noble soul" who had proven his commitment in "selfless years of zealous episcopal and missionary service." With the death of Cardinal Kozlowiecki, there are now 181 living members of the College of Cardinals, of whom 104 are under the age of 80 and thus eligible to participate in a papal conclave.

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