On Monday, Cardinal emeritus Jozef Tomko died at the age of 98 in Rome. "With pain in our hearts and with hope for the resurrection, we announce that His Eminence Cardinal Jozef Tomko passed his noble soul to the Lord in the early morning hours today, August 8, 2022, surrounded by his closest colleagues," said the office. The Slovak Episcopal Conference's (KBS) press office will provide more details about the funeral in Rome and in St. Elizabeth's Cathedral in Košice, where he will be buried, soon.
Jozef Tomko was born on 11 March 1924 in the village of Udavské in the Humenné district. He began his studies at the Roman Catholic Cyril and Methodius Divinity Faculty of the Slovak University in Bratislava in the school year 1943/1944. In 1945 he was sent to study in Rome by Bishop Jozef Čársky of Košice. He received further priestly training at the Pontifical College of St. John of Nepomuk and studied at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. After 1948, Tomko was unable to return to his homeland. He received the sacrament of priesthood in Rome on March 12, 1949. From 1950 to 1965 he worked as vice-rector and economist of the Pontifical College of St. John of Nepomuk in Rome and continued his studies at both the Pontifical Lateran University and the Pontifical Gregorian University.
In 1959 he was a signatory of the initiative to build the Slovak Institute of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Rome - an institution for the education of priestly adolescents and also a centre for the religious and cultural life of Slovaks abroad. During the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), he worked as a professional advisor on faith issues. Pope John Paul II appointed him titular archbishop and secretary general of the Synod of Bishops on 12 July 1979. He received his episcopal consecration on 15 September 1979 in Rome and the ordination ceremony was performed by Pope John Paul II.
In 1985 he became both Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and Chancellor of the Pontifical Urban University, and was made a Cardinal. After relinquishing the office of Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on April 9, 2001, the Pope called him to the seven-member Commission of Cardinals serving in the Vatican, and at the same time he became a member of the Board of Supervisors of the Vatican's IOR Bank. From October 23, 2001 to October 1, 2007, he was president of the Pontifical Comitat for International Eucharistic Congresses.
Cardinal Tomko was able to come to Slovakia only in 1968, but his involuntary exile continued during the period of the so-called normalisation. He did not reappear in his homeland until 1989. His speech at the plenary session of the Slovak National Council (SNR) on 21 April 1991 was a historic event.
His literary output was also rich. Among other works, he wrote, for example, the study The Significance of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Slovak Catholicism and Slovak History (1984), which he also published in English. He also published several books describing his missionary journeys on various continents. In 2002, President Rudolf Schuster awarded him the Order of the White Double Cross 1st Class.
Source: TASR
