The beginning of the funeral Mass today in St. Peter’s Basilica for Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, who died on Monday, February 25, at the age of 72. (The scaffolding in the back is temporary, part of a general cleansing project for the upcoming Jubilee Year)
Pope Francis, 88, joined the funeral ceremony at the end of the funeral Mass. (The altar is behind the Pope and the coffin is in front of him, with an open book of the Gospels on top of the coffin.)
Below, another view of the Pope during the rite of the Last Commendation and of the Valediction
The cardinal’s body is carried in a coffin out of the basilica
The cardinal’s coffin in a vehicle outside of the back of the basilica to carry him away to his final resting place in Seville, Spain, arguably the greatest, most prosperous city in Europe in the 1500s, where Christopher Columbus in also buried
“No one is cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” –Lamentations 3:31-32
“The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.” –Isaiah 57:1-2
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.” –-John 14:1-3
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” –Philippians 1:21-23
Letter #64, 2024, Wed, Nov 27: Funeral
At 2 p.m. today in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City funeral Mass was held for Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, who died on Monday, November 25, at the age of 72.
Ayuso Guixot was one of the Church’s great experts on Islam, and knew Arabic well. In recent years, until his death, he was the head of the Vatican’s office for dialogue with other religions, including Islam. Thus, many Muslims showed their respect for him by attending his funeral today.
His great hope was that human beings could live together on this planet in harmony and, when necessary, discuss their differences — including their different religious beliefs — without violent conflict and war.
He once said: “God is the Creator of everything and everyone, so we are members of a single family and we must recognize ourselves as such. This is the fundamental criterion that faith offers us to move from mere tolerance to fraternal coexistence, to interpret the differences that exist among us, to defuse violence and to live as brothers and sisters.”
To this end, he emphasized what people have in common — for example, their love for their families, their respect for their ancestors, their hopes for their children, and (particularly in the case of Muslims), their profound respect for Jesus and their love and respect for the Virgin Mary (Miriam in Arabic).
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(Note: Muslims believe Mary was a virgin. and Jesus is called the “spirit of God” because he was conceived and born through the action of the spirit. Quran 3:47 supports the virginity of Mary, teaching that “no man has touched [her]” and Quran 66:12 declares “˹There is˺ also ˹the example of˺ Mary, the daughter of ’Imrân, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her ˹womb˺ through Our angel ˹Gabriel˺.
According to the Quran, the following conversation transpired between the angel Gabriel and Mary when he appeared to her in the form of a man:
19:17 …Then We sent to her Our angel, ˹Gabriel,˺ appearing before her as a man, perfectly formed.
19:18 She appealed, “I truly seek refuge in the Most Compassionate from you! ˹So leave me alone˺ if you are God-fearing.”
19:19 He responded, “I am only a messenger from your Lord, ˹sent˺ to bless you with a pure son.”
19:20 She wondered, “How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me, nor am I unchaste?”
19:21 He replied, “So will it be! Your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me. And so will We make him a sign for humanity and a mercy from Us.’ It is a matter ˹already˺ decreed.” link)
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The funeral was held at the very back of St Peter’s Basilica, at the Altar of the Chair, and beneath the stained-glass window depicting the Holy Spirit descending. (first photo above)
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 90, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, was the principal celebrant.
Despite his age, he still has a strong, clear voice, and on all the recent occasions I have seen him, walks steadily and erect — a bit of a contrast even with Pope Francis, age 87, who, being pushed in a wheel-chair, joined the funeral service after the Mass to preside over the final rites of farewell.
Re spoke in excellent Latin throughout the entire Mass, which was in the New Order (Novus Ordo) of Paul VI, except for Re’s homily, which he delivered in Italian. His two co-celebrants, retired Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, 92, and Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 69, the Vatican Secretary of State, also read prayers in Latin, and also pronounced the Latin clearly and beautifully.
About 500 people were present, including about 60 co-celebrants, and many members of the diplomatic community stationed in Rome, who knew the cardinal due to his work in the field of religious dialogue.
May eternal light shine upon him, and may he rest in peace. –RM
Here is today’s Vatican News report on the Mass, translated from the original Italian (link):
For Cardinal Re, who celebrated the Mass and delivered the homily, Cardinal Ayuso Guixot was “an authentic man of the Church”
Celebrated in the afternoon in the Vatican Basilica: the funeral of the cardinal, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, who died November 25. Representatives of other religions, especially Muslims, and Comboni brothers were present. In his homily, the dean recalled that the Spanish cardinal “saw in every person, of whatever race, language or condition a member of the one human family.” Pope presided over the rite of the Ultima Commendatio and Valedictio
By Gianluca Biccini – Vatican City
“Expending oneself in dialogue with everyone with a sense of fraternity and goodness.”
This is the “lesson of life” bequeathed by Comboni Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot to the Church, to the faithful of other religions with whom he came into contact, and to the many who knew him, appreciating his gifts of kindness, discretion and intelligence.
Reviving it today, Nov. 27, was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Represiding in the Vatican Basilica at the funeral of his Spanish confrere, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, who died last Monday at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome where he was hospitalized.
About 60 concelebrants at the altar of the Cathedra among cardinals, bishops and priests were joined by Pope Francis who presided over the rite of the Ultima Commendatio, the last recommendation to God that he receive the soul of the deceased into the glorious communion of saints, and the Valedictio, the farewell before burial. By the will of Ayuso Guixothimself, his burial will take place in Seville, where he was born 72 years ago into a large family of no fewer than nine brothers and sisters.
Many representatives of other religions were present
And many of his family members attended the funeral along with many representatives of other religions — especially Muslims active in realities dear to him such as the Higher Committee on Human Fraternity, the Abrahamic Family House, the Muslim Council of Elders and the Grand Mosque of Rome –, Dicastery staff, Comboni brethren, and friends.
Moved, in front of the wooden coffin on which the open book of the Gospel had been laid, they wished to pay their respects to the mild-mannered, gentle-minded man with an uncommon ability to relate, always cordially attentive to everyone.
“He saw in every person, of whatever race, language or condition a member of the one human family,” Cardinal Re remarked in his homily, reconstructing the profile of the priest who was the spiritual son of St. Daniele Comboni: from his studies in Seville and then in Rome at the Pontifical Urbaniana University and the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (Pisai), to his missionary ministry in Egypt, where he was pastor of the Latin community of the Sacred Heart in Abbasiyya and did his best to welcome and assist the young Sudanese present in the Egyptian capital as students, migrants or refugees, and in Sudan at the time of the civil war, where he later taught Islamology in Khartoum; from the presidency of Pisai, to service in the then Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. as secretary and then president, succeeding Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.
A dynamic style
Ordained bishop by Pope Francis and created cardinal himself, “Ayuso had a special preparation for the activity” of the former Secretariat for Non-Christians, which with the Praedicate Evangelium became the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, where as prefect,” the cardinal dean recalled, ‘he carried out a vast work with a dynamic style’ in “a succession of commitments and travels to every corner of the world to witness to his Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Shinto, Confucian and traditional religion brothers and sisters that through personal friendship it is possible to establish a dialogue. In this, “animated by the conviction that the path of dialogue with people of different religious traditions is part of the Church’s original mission.”
The “trips of brotherhood” following the Pope
Above all, he had the opportunity to be part of Pope Francis’ retinue on apostolic visits to countries where Catholics are a minority.
Ayuso liked to call them “brotherhood trips”: like the one in 2019 in Abu Dhabi, when the Pope signed with Grand Imam Al-Tayyeb the Document on Human Brotherhood for World Peace and Common Coexistence; or like the “historic” one in 2021 in Iraq, in the land of Abraham.
Then because of the illness that had struck him forcing him to repeated hospitalizations, he had in spite of himself had to slow down his activities, especially those away from Rome, confiding to those close to him that he had particularly suffered from not being able to follow Pope Bergoglio on his recent trip to Asia and Oceania, the longest of the pontificate.
A further confirmation of his being “an authentic man of the Church, sustained by a spirit of faith and prayer,” who — as the celebrant said again at the funeral — “had a heart open to everything that touches the human person and interests his good” and “compassionate toward people in need of help, believers or non-believers.”
After all, Re concluded, “health problems had slowed but not weakened his commitment to dialogue with other religions in his service, for which he spent himself to the end with dedication.”
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