Cardinal Sladkevicius

Name:

H.E. Vincentas Card. SLADKEVICIUS MIC

Position:

Archbishop Emeritus of Kaunas

Born:

Friday, August 20, 1920

Died:

28 May 2000 (aged 79)

From:

Lithuania

Cardinal since:

Tuesday, June 28, 1988

Title:

Cardinal Priest of Spirito Santo alla Ferratella

Born on August 20, 1920, in Guroniai, in the parish of Zasliai, Lithuania, Cardinal Sladkevicius began his studies in a Jesuit high school. He entered the seminary and was ordained on March 25, 1944. In 1952, he became a professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Seminary of Kaunas, and on November 14, 1957, was made Titular Bishop of Abora. The local Communist government refused to recognize this nomination, however, and so compelled him to retire to a parish in the country. On July 15, 1982, John Paul II appointed Sladkevicius Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Kaisiadorys. He was then named president of the Lithuanian Episcopal Conference in April, 1988, and elevated to the College of Cardinals by John Paul II during the Consistory of June 28, 1988 (when it was made public that he had been named a cardinal in pectore by the Pope in 1979!). On March 10, 1989, he was transferred to the archdiocese of Kaunas.