Antonio Cardinal Ribeiro, Portuguese archbishop. Member of Academy of Sciences (letters section Lisbon), Council Culture (Rome), Catholic Education and Pontif, Congregation Clergy.
Background
Ribeiro, Antonio Cardinal was born on May 21, 1928 in Gandarela de Basto, Archdiocese of Braga. Son of Jose and Ana (Gonçalves) R. Student Seminary of Braga and Pontifical University, Rome. Ordained priest Roman Catholic Church, 1953, appointed Patriarch of Lisbon, 1971, military bishop of Portugal, 1972, proclaimed cardinal, 1973.
Education
Ribeiro graduated with a degree in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome and lectured in the Superior Institute of Catholic Culture.
Career
On 3 July 1967 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Braga and Titular Bishop of Tigillava, and was consecrated a bishop on 17 September. His doctoral thesis, written in 1959, was The Doctrine of Errors in Saint Thomas Aquinas. He also attended the Theological Faculties of Innsbruck and Munich.
Meanwhile, in 1960 he also began to appear in television with a program called Dia do Senhor (The Lord"s Day), and collaborated with several religious magazines and newspapers, beyond his own publications.
On Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira"s retirement as Patriarch in 1971, Ribeiro became his successor. He was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Portuguese Military in 1972, and was elevated by Pope Paul VI on 5 March 1973 to Cardinal-Priest of Sant"Antonio da Padova in Via Merulana, at the age of 44 becoming the youngest cardinal since Cerejeira himself forty-four years earlier.
He remains the youngest cardinal appointed since 1930. He attended the 1978 August and October Conclaves.
In 1991, he was the papal envoy to the 5th centennial celebration of evangelization in Luanda, Angola.
He died of cancer in Lisbon in 1998 two months before his 70th birthday and is buried in the tomb of the patriarchs in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora. He was the Principal Consecrator in 1978 of José da Cruz Policarpo, who succeeded him as Patriarch, and in 1989 of Januário Ferreira, who succeeded him as Military vicar of Portugal in 2001.
Views
Recognised as a man of compromise (and markedly less close to the Estado Novo government than Cerejeira had been), Ribeiro was nevertheless very determined in defending the rights and privileges of the Church in his country.
Membership
During the 1960s he continued his studies in Braga and was made member of such institutions as the Superior Institute of Social and Political Sciences.