The following is the telegram of condolence from the Holy Father to the Reverend Msgr. Fernando Loza Martínez the on the death August 10, 2021, of His Eminence Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, Camerlengo emeritus of the Holy Roman Church, of the Title of the Santissimo Nome di Gesù:
Telegram of the Holy Father
REVEREND MONSIGNOR FERNANDO LOZA MARTíNEZ
ARCHPRIEST’S PALACE VATICAN CITY
HAVING LEARNED OF THE PIOUS DEATH OF YOUR UNCLE, CARDINAL EDUARDO MARTINEZ SOMALO, I WISH TO EXPRESS MY CLOSENESS TO YOU, TO HIS RELATIVES, AND TO THOSE WHO KNEW AND ESTEEMED HIM, RECALLING WITH AFFECTION THE SPIRITUALLY FRUITFUL WITNESS OF THIS DEAR BROTHER. IN CONSIDERING WITH SINCERE ADMIRATION THE LONG AND RICH EXPERIENCE ACQUIRED BY THE DECEASED CARDINAL AND DEVOTED COLLABORATOR OF SIX POPES, MY PREDECESSORS, WHO ENTRUSTED DELICATE AND IMPORTANT OFFICES TO HIM, I GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HIS FAITHFUL AND GENEROUS SERVICE TO THE CHURCH AND TO THE HOLY SEE. I ASK THE LORD, BY THE MATERNAL INTERCESSION OF THE HOLY VIRGIN, TO WELCOME HIM IN THE HOMELAND OF HEAVEN TO ENJOY THE BEATITUDE PROMISED TO FAITHFUL SERVANTS OF THE GOSPEL, AND I IMPART A HEARTFELT APOSTOLIC BLESSING TO THOSE WHO MOURN HIS PASSING, WITH A SPECIAL THOUGHT FOR THE MISSIONARY SISTERS OF JESUS THE ETERNAL PRIEST WHO LOVINGLY CARED FOR HIM.
FRANCISCUS PP.
From Vatican City, 11 August 2021
Cardinal Somalo was ordained a priest in 1950, afterward returned to his native diocese of Calahorra y La Calzada-Logroño, and then returned to Rome again, this time to attend courses at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the school for future diplomats of the Holy See.
In August 1956, he became an official at the Secretariat of State and was made responsible for the Spanish section. For this reason, he was at Pope St. Paul VI’s side in August 1968 during his Apostolic Journey to Colombia for the 39th International Eucharistic Congress.
He spent 14 years in the Vatican, then in April 1970, he was appointed counselor of the Apostolic Delegation to Great Britain. But just six months later, in October, the Secretariat of State called him back as an assessor and then as a direct collaborator of the then-substitute, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli.
Another five years of service in the Vatican, during which Martinez Somalo always found a way to divide his time between the Vatican offices, where many also appreciated his sense of humor, and his closeness to the people, in particular to those who suffer.
Then, on 12 November 1975, Paul VI appointed him as a titular archbishop and sent him as Apostolic Nuncio to Colombia. He then returned to the Holy See after four years.
The Pope who recalled him in May 1979 was John Paul II, who appointed him as substitute of the Secretariat of State, a position he held until 1988 when the Polish Pope created him a cardinal.
In the same year, he was also appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a post that Cardinal Martínez Somalo left in 1992 to dedicate himself to leading the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, of which he became Prefect Emeritus in 2004.
