Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk dies

Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk / Courtesy of Archdiocese of Seoul

Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, former Catholic archbishop of Seoul, died Tuesday, Catholic officials said. He was 89.

Cheong passed away of old age at 10:15 p.m. at a Seoul hospital for treatment, according to officials. He had been hospitalized since February due to an unspecified ailment.

For years, he expressed his intention not to receive life support treatment, although he managed to overcome critical, life-threatening maladies in the past.

He agreed to donate his organs, including his corneas, upon death. Catholic officials said surgeons has removed some of his organs in accordance with his will.

A Requiem Mass was held in a solemn mood after midnight at Myeongdong Cathedral, the seat of the Catholic archdiocese of Seoul, presided over by Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the incumbent archbishop. It was attended by a limited number of bishops, priests and reporters.

The body of the late cardinal was laid in a glass coffin before the altar.

"Cardinal Cheong gave out everything he had to churches and the poor. He donated his organs to devote himself to helping the weak," Yeom said during the mass. "He was always free from material things and he was unconstrained."

He said Cheong was like a mother who is warm-hearted, considerate and caring, while the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan was like a father.

Cheong's funeral will be held at the cathedral Saturday. He will be buried in a Catholic cemetery in Yongin, on the southern outskirts of Seoul, where many celebrated priests, including Cardinal Kim, are entombed.

Born in 1931 to a devout Catholic family in Seoul, he entered the Catholic University of Korea in 1954 and obtained his bachelor's degree in theology.

After he was ordained in 1961, he served in the pastorate for seven years in Seoul. He also taught students in a Catholic high school in Seoul.

In 1968, he went Italy to study. In the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, he majored in canon law and acquired a master's degree.

Two years after he returned to South Korea, Cheong was appointed as the youngest Catholic bishop in Korea at age 39.

He also held a number of educational and religious roles for decades.

In particular, he led the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea, the highest decision-making body in the Korean Catholic Church, for three years from 1996.

Cheong was later promoted to archbishop of Seoul in 1998 after Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan stepped down. He served in the post for 14 years and retired in 2012.

In 2006, Cheong was appointed cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, becoming the second Catholic cardinal in Korea after Kim.

He was widely known as an expert in canon law.

He led the project to translate the 1983 Code of Canon Law into the Korean language, and the Korean edition was approved by the Roman Curia in 1989.

He also published 15 volumes of commentary on the Code of Canon Law, along with 50 publications throughout his life. (Yonhap)

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