Blessed Eduardo Francisco Pironio

Eduardo Francisco Pironio was born at Nueve de Julio in Argentina on 3 December 1920 into a family of Italian emigrants. He entered the seminary of San José at La Plata in 1932 and was ordained on 5 December 1943 in the national shrine of Our Lady of Luján. He taught literature, dogma, christology, sacramental and fundamental theology and philosophy in his diocesan seminary, took his licence in theology at the Angelicum in Rome in 1953, and on returning became vicar general in 1958 and rector of the metropolitan seminary of Villa Devoto in 1960. He attended the opening session of the Second Vatican Council as an observer and was named a peritus the following year. Auxiliary bishop of La Plata in 1964, apostolic administrator of Avellaneda in 1967, he was secretary and then president of CELAM and did valuable work for the Medellín Conference of 1968.

Bishop of Mar del Plata in 1972, he was named pro-prefect of the Congregation for Religious in 1975 and created cardinal in 1976. From 1984 he presided over the Pontifical Council for the Laity, where his name became bound above all to World Youth Day.