Holy Name Province is mourning the loss of two well-respected and internationally-known friars.
Brazilian Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider, OFM, died Dec. 23, 2007 at the age of 83. The cardinal, whose family was of German origin, died in the Franciscan friary of Porto Aledre, where he had retired for the past years. Cardinal Lorscheider, born in 1924 at Porto Alegre, joined the Franciscans at the age of 18 and was solemnly professed four years later, in 1946.
He was professor at the Pontificio Ateneo Antonianum in Rome and in 1962 was ordained bishop of Saint Angelo and subsequently nominated Archbishop of Fortaleza (1973) and of Aparecida from 1995 to Jan. 28, 2004. Named cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1976, he held the post of president of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops and of CELAM.
Fr. Sean Collins, OFM, 62 years of age, a friar of the Province of Ireland, Secretary General of the Order, and former Definitor General of the English-Speaking Conference from 1997 to 2003, died Dec. 24, 2007 in Ireland, of cancer. The Mass of Christian Burial for Fr. Sean was held Dec. 27 at the Abbey Church, Multyfarnham (Mullingar), Ireland, with burial in the friars’ cemetery.
He was widely-known to many HNP friars who had attended international meetings of the Order or travelled to Rome on other business.