Edmund Szoka

His Eminence Edmund Szoka
President Emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State

Appointed	October 15, 1997
Term ended	September 15, 2006
Predecessor	Rosalio José Castillo Lara
Successor	Giovanni Lajolo
Other posts	Cardinal Priest of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio
Orders
Ordination	June 5, 1954 by Thomas Lawrence Noa
Consecration	July 20, 1971 by John Francis Dearden
Created Cardinal	June 28, 1988 by John Paul II
Personal details
Born	(1927-09-14)September 14, 1927 Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A
Died	August 20, 2014(2014-08-20) (aged 86) Novi, Michigan, U.S.A
Previous post	President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See (1990–1997) Archbishop of Detroit (1981–1990) Bishop of Gaylord (1971–1981)
Motto	To Live in Faith
Coat of arms

Styles of Edmund Szoka

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal

Edmund Casimir Szoka (September 14, 1927 – August 20, 2014) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was President Emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President Emeritus of the Governatorate of Vatican City State, having previously served as Bishop of Gaylord from 1971 to 1981 and Archbishop of Detroit from 1981 to 1990. Szoka was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.

Early life

Edmund Casimir Szoka was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Casimir and Mary (née Wolgat) Szoka, Polish immigrants. He has an older sister, Irene, and moved with his family in the early 1930s to Muskegon, where he did his primary studies at St. Michael School. Attracted to life as a priest at an early age, Szoka attended St. Joseph's Seminary in Grand Rapids, Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit for his junior and senior years, and then St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan to study theology.

Priesthood

On June 5, 1954, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Thomas Noa in St. Peter's Cathedral in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He did pastoral work in Manistique but soon thereafter became secretary to Bishop Noa of Marquette, whom he accompanied to the first session of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. During this period he also served as chaplain at St. Mary’s Hospital and K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base. From 1957 to 1959, he studied canon law at the Pontifical Urbaniana University or the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. Upon returning to the United States, Szoka did pastoral and curial work, including serving as an official of the matrimonial tribunal, in Marquette until 1971. He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness on November 14, 1963, by Pope Paul VI.

Episcopal ministry

Szoka was appointed the first Bishop of Gaylord on June 11, 1971. He received his episcopal consecration on the following July 20 from Cardinal John Francis Dearden, with Bishops Charles Salatka and Joseph McKinney serving as co-consecrators. A year later, the Bishops of the 4th pastoral region of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) elected him president for the period of 1972-77. At the same time, he was treasurer and secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Michigan. As Bishop of Gaylord, Szoka improved the annulment consideration process, drawing from his experience in the matrimonial tribunal in Marquette.

On March 21, 1981, he was promoted to the third Metropolitan Archbishop of Detroit (eighth bishop) by Pope John Paul II. Since 1981, he also served as president of the Administration Council of the provincial seminary of St. John in Plymouth, Michigan and SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary near Orchard Lake Village, Michigan. He was also a president of the board of directors of the Episcopal Conference of Michigan, member of the executive committee of The Catholic University of America, president of the Committee for University Relations, Administrator of the National Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception, treasurer of the NCCB, and served on committees within the Conference for: human values, bishops, dioceses and provinces, and economic affairs. He faced challenges of finance and enforcing Church discipline, and welcomed John Paul II to Detroit in 1987 during his tenure as Archbishop.

In 1983, he dealt with the case of Agnes Mary Mansour, a nun and the director of the Michigan Department of Community Health who worked to continue abortion services in Michigan. Szoka had given his permission for Mansour to serve the state but said she must oppose publicly funded abortion. Mansour believed abortion was tragic but should be legal, and she continued disbursing Medicaid abortion funds. Szoka appealed to Mansour's superiors in the Sisters of Mercy but the order supported her stance.^[1] Szoka referred the case to the Vatican, and Bishop Anthony Bevilacqua resolved it by ordering Mansour to resign either her government post or her orders. Mansour left the sisterhood.^[2]

He was created Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio by John Paul II in the consistory of June 28, 1988.

Roman Curia

Resigning as Archbishop of Detroit on April 28, 1990, Szoka was named President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See on January 22, 1990 to October 14, 1997. In this position, he helped manage the Vatican's financial affairs

On October 14, 1997, Cardinal Szoka was named President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and on February 22, 2001, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. Within the Roman Curia his membership includes: Secretariat of State (second section), and Causes of Saints, Bishops, Evangelization of Peoples (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide), Clergy, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (congregations). He submitted his resignation to John Paul II in 2002, at the Church's mandatory retirement age of 75, but was requested to continue working. During his rare spare time, Szoka enjoyed walking through the Vatican Gardens.^[3]

Szoka was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. As Governor of the Vatican, it fell to Szoka, along with Secretary of State Angelo Sodano and Camerlengo Eduardo Martínez Somalo, to prepare for the cardinal electors' housing at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Retirement

It was announced on June 22, 2006, that his resignation had been accepted by Pope Benedict and that he would officially step down on September 15, 2006; he maintained all curial memberships until age 80. On what he would do after retirement, Szoka said he was interested in travel, writing, studying the Church Fathers, and continuing to provide priestly assistance to Detroit.^[4] Cardinal Szoka has fond memories of Pope John Paul II, especially in regard to his travels to Poland and to the United States: Cardinal Szoka lived in Northville, Michigan.

Szoka died on August 20, 2014, of natural causes, at the local Providence Park Hospital, in Novi, Michigan.^[5]^[6] Pope Francis sent the incumbent Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Henry Vigneron, a papal telegram of condolence, in which he expressed his appreciation for the Cardinal's "tireless episcopal ministry in Gaylord and Detroit, and his years of service to the Apostolic See and the Vatican City State". Archbishop Vigneron, in his own statement, stated,: "We mourn the loss of a dedicated shepherd. For sixty years, Cardinal Szoka gave himself totally to his priestly service of Christ and his Church. He has gone home to the Heavenly Father with our prayers. May the Lord give him the reward of his labors." Cardinal Szoka's funeral Mass was celebrated on Tuesday, August 26, 2014, at Detroit's Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. He was to be buried at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

References

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/memories_of_john_paul_ii
"Home > Our Archdiocese > Meet Our Bishops > Retired Bishops > Cardinal Edmund Szoka". http://www.aod.org. Archdiocese of Detroit. Retrieved 2014-08-25. External link in |website= (help)

↑ "The Nun vs. the Archbishop", Time, March 21, 1983.
↑ "Obey or Leave". TIME Magazine. 1983-05-23.
↑ The Michigan Catholic. "After 14 years away, Cd. Szoka still misses home" June 4, 2004
↑ Delaney, Robert (June 30, 2006). "Cd. Szoka looks to help local priests". The Michigan Catholic. Retrieved 2010-12-07. Cardinal Szoka said he would like to spend half of each year back in Detroit, where he was archbishop from 1981 to 1990, and half of it at the new apartment he will have within the 109-acre city state.
↑ Montemurri, Patricia (21 August 2014). "Detroit Catholic Cardinal Edmund Szoka dies at age 86". The Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
↑ Vatican Radio. "Church mourns death of Cardinal Edmund Szoka". Official Vatican Network.
↑ http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/detroit-mourns-loss-of-retired-cardinal-edmund-szoka-17493/
↑ http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/08/22/0591/01308.html
↑ http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20140822.htm#head10
↑ The Michigan Catholic: "A life of faith: Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka, former Detroit archbishop, dies at 86" August 21, 2014

Catholic Church titles
New title New Position Created	President of the Governorate of Vatican City State 1997–2006	Succeeded by Giovanni Lajolo
Vacant Title last held by Rosalio José Castillo Lara	President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State 2001–2006	Succeeded by Giovanni Lajolo
Preceded by Giuseppe Caprio	President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See 1990–1997	Succeeded by Sergio Sebastiani
Preceded by John Francis Dearden	Archbishop of Detroit 1981–1990	Succeeded by Adam Maida
New title Diocese erected	Bishop of Gaylord 1971–1981	Succeeded by Robert John Rose

External links

Edmund Szoka at Find a Grave

Archdiocese of Detroit

Ordinaries of the Archdiocese of Detroit

Bishops	Frederick Rese Caspar Borgess John Samuel Foley Michael Gallagher

Coadjutor bishop	Peter Paul Lefevere

Archbishops	Edward Aloysius Mooney John Francis Dearden Edmund Szoka Adam Maida Allen Henry Vigneron

Churches in the Archdiocese of Detroit

Cathedral	Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Parishes	Detroit Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church Most Holy Redeemer Church Our Lady of the Rosary Church Sacred Heart Church St. Albertus Church Ste. Anne de Detroit Church St. Catherine of Siena Church St. Charles Borromeo Church St. Josaphat's Church St. Joseph Church St. Mary Church St. Patrick Church Saints Peter and Paul Church St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church Sweetest Heart of Mary Church Monroe County St. Mary's Church, Monroe Wayne County St. Paul Church, Grosse Pointe Farms St. Florian Church, Hamtramck Our Lady of the Scapular Parish, Wyandotte Former St. Boniface Church, Detroit St. Theresa of Avila Church, Detroit St. Thomas the Apostle's Church, Detroit

Shrine	National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak

Education in the Archdiocese of Detroit

Higher education	Madonna University Marygrove College University of Detroit Mercy

Seminaries	Sacred Heart Major Seminary SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary

High schools	Macomb County De La Salle Collegiate High School, Warren Regina High School, Warren Austin Catholic High School, Ray Township Monroe County St. Mary Catholic Central High School, Monroe Oakland County Academy of the Sacred Heart High School, Bloomfield Hills Bishop Foley Catholic High School, Madison Heights Brother Rice High School, Bloomfield Hills Detroit Catholic Central High School, Novi Everest Academy and High School, Independence Township Marian High School, Bloomfield Hills Mercy High School, Farmington Hills Notre Dame Preparatory, Pontiac Our Lady of the Lakes High School, Waterford Shrine Catholic High School, Royal Oak St. Mary's Preparatory, Orchard Lake Village St. Catherine of Siena Academy, Wixom St. Clair County Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School, Marine City Wayne County Cabrini High School, Allen Park Detroit Cristo Rey High School, Detroit Divine Child High School, Dearborn Gabriel Richard Catholic High School, Riverview Ladywood High School, Livonia Loyola High School, Detroit University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, Detroit

Former	Higher education Duns Scotus College Maryglade College High schools Girls Catholic Central High School, Detroit Holy Redeemer High School, Detroit Notre Dame High School, Harper Woods Sacred Heart High School, Roseville Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School, Wyandotte

Clergy of the Archdiocese of Detroit

Auxiliary bishops	Moses Anderson Allen James Babcock Leonard Paul Blair Earl Alfred Boyea, Jr. Joseph M. Breitenbeck Kevin Michael Britt Michael J. Byrnes Arturo Cepeda Patrick R. Cooney Henry Edmund Donnelly John Anthony Donovan Daniel E. Flores Thomas Gumbleton Donald Hanchon Bernard Joseph Harrington Walter A. Hurley Joseph Leopold Imesch Edward D. Kelly Arthur Henry Krawczak Dale Joseph Melczek John Clayton Nienstedt Joseph C. Plagens John M. Quinn Francis R. Reiss Walter Joseph Schoenherr Allen Henry Vigneron Stephen Stanislaus Woznicki Alexander M. Zaleski

Priests	Alexander Joseph Brunett Solanus Casey Charles Coughlin Francis Kelley Camillus Paul Maes Jeffrey Marc Monforton William Murphy John A. Trese Kenneth Edward Untener

Catholicism Portal

Detroit Portal

Diocese of Gaylord

Bishops	Edmund Szoka Robert John Rose Patrick R. Cooney Bernard Hebda Steven J. Raica

Churches	Cathedral St. Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral Parishes St. Joseph's Church, Glen Arbor Shrine Cross in the Woods

Education	High Schools Catholic Central High School, Manistee St. Francis High School, Traverse City St. Mary Cathedral High School, Gaylord St. Mary High School, Lake Leelanau

Priests	Chad Zielinski

Catholicism Portal

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 9427925 LCCN: no95020584

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