Vatican City: Cardinal Prosper Grech, a world-renowned theological scholar and founder of the Augustinian Patriarchal Institute of Lateran University, has passed away. He was 94 years old. The end of old-age ailments. Just before the election of the new pope (Francis Pope) in the Sistine Chapel in March 2013, Cardinal Grecht led the meditation for the cardinals involved in the electoral team.
Born in 1925 in the European island of Malta. In 1950, at the age of 29, he was ordained to the priesthood of St. John the Lateran Basilica in Rome. After receiving his doctorate in theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in 1953, Cardinal Grecht completed his studies at the Pontifical Bible Institute and at the University of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1961 he was appointed Secretary of the Apostolic See and the Vicar General of the Vatican City State, Pietro Canisio van Lierde.
Cardinal Grecht himself reveals that he met him in the Apostolic Palace just hours before he was elected Pope Paul VI in 1963 and asked him to hear his confession. Cardinal Gretch, who taught language and translation for 30 years at the Pontifical Bible Institute, served as president of the Augustinian Patristic Institute, which he founded from 1971 to 79.
In 1984, Cardinal Grech was appointed as an expert consultant to the Faith Council. He was a member of the Pontifical Theological Academy in 2003 and of the Pontifical Bible Commission in 2004. In 2012 Pope Benedict XVI elevated him to the rank of Cardinal. He was the second Malta native to be made Cardinal.
