Jesuit Cardinal Roberto Tucci died in Rome on Tuesday night, 14 April, after a long illness. On learning the news, the Pope sent a telegram of condolences to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Adolfo Nicolás Pachón, recalling the Cardinal's “precious cooperation with the Holy See for many decades, as editor-in-chief at Civiltà Cattolica, as peritus at the Second Vatican Council, as director general of Vatican Radio and especially as organizer of papal visits outside of Italy”. 

The Cardinal “leaves us the memory of an active and dynamic life lived out in consistent and generous adherence to his religious vocation, attentive to the needs of others and a faithful pastor of the Gospel and the Church, following the footsteps of St Ignatius”.

Cardinal Tucci, who would have turned 94 this upcoming Sunday, had been in the Pius XI hospital in Rome with respiratory problems for several weeks. He died at 9:40 pm in the Jesuit community's infirmary on Via dei Penitenzieri. Born in Naples on 19 April 1921, he was ordained a priest on 24 August 1950. John Paul II created in a cardinal in the consistory on 21 February 2001, giving him the Deaconry of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio. Exactly ten years later on 21 February 2001, he chose the order of priests, retaining the same deaconry raised pro hac vice to presbyteral title.