ROME, MAY 1, 2011 (Zenit.org).- An 80-year-old Spanish cardinal in Rome for Pope John Paul II’s beatification died this morning of a heart attack.
Cardinal Agustín García-Gasco y Vicente, retired archbishop of Valencia, had been in Rome since last Wednesday and participated in last night’s vigil.
This morning, when he did not arrive for breakfast, he was discovered in his room and taken by ambulance to the San Carlos hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Agustín García-Gasco y Vicente was born in 1931 and ordained a priest in 1956. He was made an auxiliary bishop of his home diocese of Madrid in 1985, being named archbishop of Valencia in 1992. In 2007 he was made a cardinal and retired in 2009.
With his death, the College of Cardinals has 198 members, 115 of whom are cardinal electors.
