LOR recalls Archbishop Cipriano Calderon coined the term 'Pope’s catechesis'

Rome, Italy, Feb 6, 2009 / 11:46 am

On Thursday  L’Osservatore Romano memorialized Archbishop Cipriano Calderon Polo, vice president emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, who died at the age of 81. During his years as director of the LOR’s Spanish edition, the archbishop coined the phrase, the "Pope’s catechesis,” in order to refer to the papal messages of the Wednesday General Audience.

LOR pointed out that the late Spanish archbishop served six Pontiffs and was noted for “his fidelity to the Popes and to the Church, at whose service he placed his intelligence, his hard work, his austerity of life, his vast knowledge. His was a fidelity that was born naturally of the faith that was so rooted in him.”

After being named vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America by John Paul II, a task “he carried out with the dedication to work that always characterized him.” Archbishop Cipriano Calderon “journeyed with the Church in Latin America in her culminating moments in Puebla, Medellin and Santo Domingo, and thus helped Rome come to a greater understanding of the aspirations and tensions of those young Churches,” the Vatican paper said.

The tribute also points out that the “brief portrait of Archbishop Calderon would be incomplete if we did not mention his journalistic activity, which occupied so many hours of his day. It was a life-long passion for him.”

Shortly after being named director of the L’Osservatore Romano’s Spanish edition by Paul VI in 1969, Archbishop Cipriano Calderon coined the phrase “Pope’s catechesis” to refer to the weekly discourse at the Wednesday General Audience.  “Nobody had called it that up to then…It was a meaningful and fitting definition that has been embraced in a positive way,” the archbishop said in 2007.

Archbishop Cipriano Calderon’s “testimony of fidelity” will remain with the Church forever, the newspaper stated.  “The Lord will abundantly reward his faithful servant.”