‎20 thousand people pay final respects to Card. Lourdusamy

More than 20 thousand people on Monday attended the funeral of late Indian Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy in the ‎Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in his native Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore.  The ‎requiem Mass was presided over by Apostolic Nuncio in India Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, and ‎joined in by 40 bishops from all over the country, and more than 400 priests.  Among Indian cardinals ‎present were Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, Telesphore Toppo Archbishop of Ranchi and ‎George Alencherry head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.  Cardinal Lourdusamy died at the age ‎of 90  in a Rome nursing home on 2 June.  After a funeral service in Rome’s St. Peter’s  Basilica on 5 ‎June, his body was flown to Pondicerry, India, for the final rites.   The late cardinal had wished to be ‎buried in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pondicherry.  ‎

Cardinal Gracias described the death of Cardinal Lourdusamy as ‎"a terrible loss for the Church in ‎Asia."  He said the late prelate worked hard and selflessly for the development of the Church in Asia ‎and the world. “His death is a great loss for me personally, a friend and a person for whom I had great ‎admiration and respect," he said.   Cardinal Lourdusamy was one of the youngest council fathers and ‎the first Asian to hold office in the Roman Curia in the Vatican.  "Having served for over 10 years as ‎secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples,” the Archbishop of Bombay, “His ‎Eminence was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches."  "At the service of ‎Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, he visited 110 countries on all continents, ‎and has received numerous awards for his work.  He used all his natural qualities and gifts of mind and ‎heart to spread the missionary activities of the Church".  Now "the Church in Asia and India has a ‎powerful intercessor in Heaven. While we mourn his loss, we thank God for having given us Card. ‎Lourdusamy,"  Cardinal Gracias added.‎  (Source: AsiaNews)