Leon Joseph Suenens was a Belgian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church as well as writer.
Background
Mr. Suenens was born in Ixelles, Belgium, on July 16, 1904. He was the only child of Jean-Baptiste and Jeanne (née Jannsens) Suenens. Losing his father (who had owned a restaurant) at age four, Leo lived with his mother in the rectory of his priest-uncle from 1911 to 1912.
Education
Wealthy relatives wanted him to study economics and manage their fortune, but he chose the priesthood. Leon Suenens studied at Saint Mary's Institute in Schaerbeek and then entered the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1920. From the Gregorian he obtained a doctorate in theology and in philosophy (1927), and a master's degree in canon law (1929). Mr. Suenens had taken as his mentor Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, who had also sent him to Rome.
Career
Mr. Suenens was ordained in 1927 and was appointed Cardinal in 1962. In the 1930s, he taught philosophy, and in 1940, became the vice rector of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Between 1962 and 1965, Leo Joseph Suenens served as moderator for the Vatican Council II and was a member of the Pontifical Commission charged with revising canon law. He also wrote a series of books.
Views
During the Council's debates on marriage, Mr. Suenens accused the Church of holding procreation above conjugal love. Pope Paul was greatly distressed by this and the Cardinal later denied "that he had questioned the authentic Church teaching on marriage".
According to Time Magazine, Mr. Suenens counseled the Pope against the releasing of his Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae.
Quotations:
"If you don't believe in the Holy Spirit or Resurrection or life after death, you should leave the Church."