Rome Newsroom, Apr 10, 2021 / 08:26 am
Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, a longtime Vatican diplomat and official, has died in Newcastle, Australia, at the age of 96.
Cassidy was president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity from 1989 until his retirement in 2001, when he returned to Australia after more than 30 years as a Vatican nuncio and curial official.
As head of the Holy See's office of Christian unity, Cassidy, together with the Lutheran World Federation, was responsible for the drafting and signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999.
He served as the sostituto, the second-ranking official, at the Secretariat of State for 21 months in 1988 and 1989.