Johannes Willebrands
Johannes Gerardus Maria Cardinal Willebrands ( born September 4, 1909 in Bovenkarspel, The Netherlands; † August 2, 2006 in Denekamp ) was Archbishop of Utrecht and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
Life
Johannes Willebrands received by theological and philosophical studies on May 26, 1934, the sacrament of Holy Orders. He then studied for three years in Rome before he was chaplain in 1937 in Amsterdam. From 1940 he taught philosophy at the seminary of Warmond, which he headed from 1945 to the rain.
As President of the Association Willibrord he was very active in ecumenical issues and organized in 1951 in the Netherlands, a Catholic conference on topics of ecumenism. 1960 he was appointed by Pope John XXIII. appointed secretary of the newly established Secretariat for Christian Unity. Johannes Willebrands was instrumental in the drafting of various documents on issues of dialogue with non-Christian religions, religious freedom and ecumenism during the Second Vatican Council.
In 1964 he received after his appointment as Titular Bishop of Mauriana by Pope Paul VI. episcopal ordination and from 1969 as President, the Secretariat for Christian Unity. Paul VI. took Johannes Willebrands in April 1969 as a cardinal deacon with the title Diakonia Santi Cosma e Damiano in the College of Cardinals to. On December 6, 1975, he also took over the management of the Archdiocese of Utrecht and the office of the Dutch military bishop. On the same day he was elevated to cardinal priest with the titular church of San Sebastiano Catacombs all.
His military episcopate he resigned in 1982 and went on 3 December 1983, fell as Archbishop of Utrecht, after he had nearly reached the age limit of 75 years.
In 1982 he received the St. Liborius Medal for Unity and Peace of the Archdiocese of Paderborn.
From 24 November 1985 to 8 December of the same year he was Papal Delegate at the Second Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
In the 80th year Willebrands submitted his resignation from the post of president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which Pope John Paul II accepted on 12 December 1989. Willebrands was until his death the oldest cardinal world; with Alfons Cardinal Stickler his death was the oldest living Cardinal. Willebrands last lived withdrawn in a Dutch Franciscan Monastery.
From 1988 to 1997 he was the chamberlain of the Holy College of Cardinals.