In Memoriam Cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis

The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has learned with sadness of the death of Cardinal Adrianus Johannes Simonis, who passed away on 2 September at the age of 88. 

Born in 1931 in Lisse, Diocese of Rotterdam, Cardinal Simonis was ordained in 1957. From 1959 to 1966 he studied in Rome at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and later at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. Appointed Bishop of Rotterdam in 1970, he became Archbishop of Utrecht in 1983, succeeding Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, President of the then Secretariat for Christian Unity.

Created a Cardinal in 1985, he was a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity until 2011.