Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada, retired archbishop of Mexico City, served the church with great love and dedication, said Pope Benedict XVI as he offered his condolences on the cardinal's April 10 death.Cardinal Corripio, 88, suffered from diabetes, which forced him to undergo the amputation of his right leg three years ago.
In a telegram to Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City, Pope Benedict said Cardinal Corripio had lived through his long illness "with great serenity."
The pope said the cardinal had given "witness to his great love for God and the church, as well as his great dedication to the cause of the Gospel."
Cardinal Corripio's death leaves the College of Cardinals with 196 members, 119 of whom are under the age of 80 and, therefore, eligible to vote in a conclave.
The cardinal was one of only four surviving members of the first group of cardinals created by Pope John Paul II in 1979; the remaining members of the group are Cardinals Marco Ce, patriarch emeritus of Venice, Italy; Roger Etchegaray, vice dean of the College of Cardinals; and Franciszek Macharski, retired archbishop of Krakow, Poland.
Cardinal Corripio was named archbishop of Mexico City and primate of Mexico by Pope Paul VI in 1977.
Born in Tampico, Mexico, June 29, 1919, he entered the minor seminary in Puebla when he was 11 years old.
Sent to study in Rome, he earned degrees in theology, canon law and church history from the Pontifical Gregorian University, passing most of the years of World War II in that city.
He was ordained a priest in Rome Oct. 25, 1942.
Returning to Mexico in 1945, he taught at the Tampico seminary and was named auxiliary bishop of the city in 1952, becoming bishop of Tampico four years later.
He attended all the sessions of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
Named archbishop of Anteguera in 1967, he launched a major evangelization campaign that encouraged missionaries to preach salvation and teach the faith, but also to make major efforts to improve the living conditions of the poor.
Pope Paul VI named him archbishop of Puebla in 1976, a position he held for just over a year before being named to Mexico City. He retired in 1994.
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