U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley

U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, who spent more than two decades leading the Church’s social communications council and later worked for the Church in the Middle East, died Dec. 11 after a long battle with leukemia. He was 76.

The cardinal, a Philadelphia native, was residing at a home for retired Philadelphia archdiocesan priests when he died.

A longtime advocate of Catholic communication and an enthusiastic supporter of the Catholic press, Cardinal Foley was best known to Americans as the Vatican’s “Voice of Christmas” in his role as English-language commentator for the pope’s midnight Mass for 25 years.

His media-friendly style and quick sense of humor shone in person and throughout the numerous speeches and homilies he delivered around the world. He often spoke of the joys of working for the Church, telling his audiences that while the pay often is not great “the benefits are out of this world.”

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia was to offer the Funeral Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul on Dec. 16.

“No matter where he lived or how he served the Church over the years, he always considered Philadelphia his home,” said Archbishop Chaput.

He described Cardinal Foley as “a man of great apostolic energy” and said anyone who met him “was immediately aware of his intense love for the Church and his zeal for communicating the Gospel.”

Cardinal Foley was known for his many different roles: editor of Philadelphia’s archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Standard and Times, 1970-1984; head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, 1984 to 2007; and most recently, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a chivalric organization dedicated to supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and to responding to the needs of Catholics in the Holy Land.

Addressing the 2010 Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, he said he was convinced that “the continued tension between the Israelis and the Palestinians has contributed greatly to the turmoil in all of the Middle East and also to the growth of Islamic fundamentalism.”

Greg Erlandson, president of the Catholic Press Association, described the cardinal as a “bright, witty, humble man who served his Church faithfully and well in many capacities.”

He said the cardinal was an “indefatigable supporter of the Catholic press” who always “remained a journalist at heart, and he believed strongly in the importance of this professional vocation for the life of the Church.”

But he noted that the cardinal should be most remembered “for his strong and abiding witness to the Lord in all that he did.”

“In his innate dignity and good will, he was a genuine prince of the Church, and he will be sorely missed.”

Born in the Philadelphia suburb of Darby, Cardinal Foley was ordained a priest in Philadelphia when he was 26.

A graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, he said his media experience dated back to the seventh grade, when he started writing radio plays on the lives of saints. Not only were his plays aired but, at age 14, he was asked to be an announcer for Sunday morning programming on then-WJMJ in Philadelphia.

Between stints as assistant editor of Philadelphia’s archdiocesan paper, the Catholic Standard and Times, in the 1960s, he completed his graduate studies in philosophy in Rome, where he also worked as a news reporter. His beat included covering the Second Vatican Council from 1963 to 1965.

In 1970, he was appointed editor of the archdiocesan paper, a position he held until Pope John Paul II named him an archbishop and appointed him head of the social communications council in 1984.

Cardinal Foley has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Catholic Press Association’s highest prize, the St. Francis de Sales Award. —CNS