DETROIT (AP) – Edmund Szoka, who was the former governor of Vatican City and the head of the Detroit archdiocese, has died at age 86.
Szoka died of natural causes Wednesday night at Providence Park Hospital in Novi, Michigan, the Archdiocese of Detroit said in a statement Thursday.
“We mourn the loss of a dedicated shepherd,” said Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who served as a priest under Szoka in the 1980s. “For 60 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.”
Pope John Paul II made Szoka a cardinal in 1988. Not long after, he became the Vatican’s point man for finance. By 1998, he was running one of the world’s smallest countries: Vatican City.
Following his retirement from active ministry in 2006, Szoka had been living in the Detroit suburb of Northville.