Jozef Tomko

Jozef Cardinal Tomko ( born March 11, 1924 in Udavské ) is a Slovak retired Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Life

Jozef Tomko studied by scholastic degree in Michalovce 1943-1944 at the Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology at the Comenius University in Bratislava and lived from 1945 as a seminarian at the Pontifical Collegium Nepomucenum in Rome and studied at the Pontifical Lateran University. At the Pontifical Gregorian University, he received his doctorate in theology, canon law and the social sciences.

After the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in 1948, he remained in Rome, and received the sacrament of Holy Orders in 1949 by the Roman Bishop and later Cardinal Luigi Traglia. He served as pastor in various parishes in the Diocese of Rome and Porto- Santa Rufina. From 1950 to 1965 he was vice- rector and later rector of the Collegium Nepomucenum. He was 1955/1956 Faculty Member of the International University of Social Studies Pro Deo.

In 1959 he entered the service of the Roman Curia. From 1962 he also worked for the CDF, and from 1974 to 1979, Tomko undersecretary of the Congregation for Bishops. From 1970 to 1978 he was professor at the Gregorian University.

On July 12, 1979, Pope John Paul II appointed Titular Archbishop of Duklja, gave him the job of Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops and donated to him on 15 September of the same year, the episcopal ordination; Co-consecrators were the Curia archbishop and later Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo, and Andrew Gregory Grutka, Bishop of Gary, Indiana, United States.

In the following years he was responsible for the organization and execution of numerous synods. Further fields of activity Tomkos were ecumenical dialogue with the Lutherans and teaching at the Gregorian since the early seventies. In addition, he worked as a pastor in various churches of Rome and was committed to Slovak communities abroad, especially in the U.S..

In 1985, by Pope John Paul II as a Cardinal Deacon of Gesù Buon Pastore the title Diakonia alla Montagnola in the College of Cardinals to. From 1985 to 2001 Tomko served as Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and took the task of Magnus Cancellarius the Pontifical Urban University. On January 29, 1996, he was elevated to cardinal priest with the titular church of Santa Sabina.

From 2001 to 2007 he was president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. On 1 October 2007, Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop Piero Marini as his successor in that office.

Pope Benedict XVI. Jozef Tomko called several times as a special envoy in November 2009 as the personal envoy to the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the evangelization of Taiwan.

In spring 2012, entrusted him Pope Benedict XVI. as a member of a three-member Commission of Cardinals with special mandate to investigate the so-called Vatileaks affair. The Commission should clarify cases of theft of confidential (Papal ) documents from the Vatican.

Since he had already completed 80 years of age, took Cardinal Tomko neither the conclave in 2005 in part at the conclave of 2013.

Honors

  • Honorary title " Pontifical chaplain " (literally: chaplain of His Holiness ) ( 1959)
  • Honorary title " Pontifical House prelate " (actually: Honorary Prelate of His Holiness ) ( 1970)
  • Honorary citizen of the Slovak capital Bratislava ( 2009)
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