Cardinal Júlio Duarte Langa of Xai-Xai, Mozambique, died on August 3 at the age of 98.
Born in 1927 and ordained to the priesthood in 1957, Langa was named bishop of Xai-Xai in 1976 and retired in 2004. He became Mozambique’s second cardinal when Pope Francis created him a cardinal in 2015.
“Keeping religious practice alive and giving new impetus to the Church in a particularly impoverished area, one also struck by famines, epidemics, and natural disasters, sums up the ministry” of the prelate, the Vatican newspaper reported. “Regarded as a father by the priests of the African nation, he had focused particularly on the formation and welfare of the diocesan clergy within the Mozambican Episcopal Conference.”