Spanish cardinal who issued rules permitting altar girls dies

Published: 2007-02-01

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Spanish Cardinal Antonio Javierre Ortas, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, died Feb. 1 in his apartment near the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI, who was to preside at Cardinal Javierre's funeral Feb. 2 in St. Peter's Basilica, said the cardinal's life and actions always were motivated by "his love for Christ and his fidelity to the successor of Peter." Cardinal Javierre's death leaves the College of Cardinals with 184 members, of whom 110 are under age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave. The cardinal, who would have celebrated his 86th birthday Feb. 21, was a member of the Salesians and had served as rector of the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, as secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education and as Vatican archivist before heading the worship congregation from 1992 to 1996. As head of the congregation, in 1994 Cardinal Javierre issued the rules officially stating that local bishops could allow women and girls to be altar servers.

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