Pope Benedict XVI offered his condolences to the people of Monterrey, Mexico, after the death of Cardinal Adolfo Suarez Rivera, 81, whom he said had served the church "so intensely and generously."The cardinal died March 22 after being hospitalized for a stroke the previous day.
A few hours before the cardinal's March 24 funeral, Pope Benedict sent a telegram of condolence, encouraging members of the cardinal's family and his archdiocese to draw strength and hope from the resurrection of Jesus.
The death of Cardinal Suarez left the College of Cardinals with 197 members, 119 of whom are under the age of 80 and, therefore, eligible to vote in a conclave.
Eleven months before being inducted into the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in 1994, then-Archbishop Suarez was a key figure in bringing an end to the fighting in the southern state of Chiapas that followed the uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Front.
Cardinal Suarez was born Jan. 9, 1927, in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in Chiapas state.
After seminary studies in Mexico, he went to Rome where he lived at the Pontifical Latin American College and earned a degree in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome in 1952.
Pope Paul VI named him bishop of Tepic in 1971 and Pope John Paul named him to head the Diocese of Tlalnepantla in 1980.
Named archbishop of Monterrey in 1983, he was elected president of the Mexican bishops' conference in 1988 and in 1991.
As president, he presided over discussions that led to the 1992 constitutional reforms extending legal recognition to the Catholic Church in Mexico for the first time in more than 70 years.
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