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On the last day of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to one of the cardinals who had helped him write and edit the Catechism of the Catholic Church: French Cardinal Jean Honore, who died Feb. 28 at the age of 92.
Offering his condolences to the Archdiocese of Tours, France, where the cardinal had served as archbishop, Pope Benedict called the cardinal a “competent and passionate artisan of the editing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church” and one who was completely dedicated to “proclaiming the Gospel to everyone in the modern world.”
Recognized as an expert in religious education for more than 50 years, Cardinal Honore helped guide the renewal of catechesis in France after the Second Vatican Council.
In 2001, he was one of five senior churchmen Blessed John Paul II appointed to the College of Cardinals in appreciation for his service to the local and universal Church.
Born in Saint-Brice-en-Cogles, France, he was ordained in 1943 and earned degrees at the Catholic Institute of Paris. In 1958 he became secretary-general of the National Commission for Religious Education and director of the National Center of Religious Education, where he helped prepare a series of French national congresses on religious instruction, held from 1960 to 1964.
In 1960, he founded a French magazine dedicated to religious education, Catechese, and guided the team of editors who prepared the 1964 French pastoral directory on catechesis.
After serving from 1964 to 1972 as rector of the Catholic University of the West in Angers, he was named bishop of Evreux in 1972. He was transferred to the Archdiocese of Tours in 1981, retiring in July 1997. —CNS
