Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - The life of Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, who has died at the age of 72 in the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where he had been treated for cancer for some time, was marked by mission and dialogue.
His life was entirely dedicated to the mission. Ayuso Guixot lived and worked as a Comboni missionary in Egypt and Sudan and was the first missionary of the Congregation founded by Saint Daniel Comboni to be made a cardinal. After a long period of study and cultivating friendships with men and women of other religions, in 2019 he was appointed head of the Pontifical Council (now Dicastery) for Interreligious Dialogue.
A Dicastery that he knew very well, having already been appointed Consultor to the Pontifical Council in 2007. In the same year, Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran was appointed President. Five years later, Benedict XVI appointed Ayuso Guixot to succeed Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata as Secretary of the Pontifical Council. At the end of the same year, he was appointed Representative of the Holy See to the Council of Parties and Founding Observer with the creation of the "King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue" (Kaiciid), based in Vienna.
When the health of the then President of the Pontifical Council worsened, Pope Francis appointed Ayuso Guixot Titular Bishop of Luperciana in 2016 and consecrated him bishop in St. Peter's Basilica. Since then, Ayuso made a number of trips to all parts of the world, including on the many papal flights that have taken the Pope to countries where Christians are few and the majority belong to other religions.
"The most important thing is the will to dialogue. We should not be naive. It is a matter of gradually bringing dialogue into people's minds in order to build relationships," Ayuso said in an interview with the French magazine La Croix in 2020.
Cardinal Ayuso's vocation to dialogue has borne many fruits, especially in dialogue with Islamic communities. It is also thanks to the work and commitment of his dicastery that the Holy See was able to overcome the rupture with Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the authoritative academic-theological center of Sunni Islam. This was the beginning of a path that culminated in the historic "Document on Human Fraternity", signed in Abu Dhabi in February 2019 by Pope Francis and the Grand Iman Ahmed al-Tayyeb.
The reconciliation between the Holy See and Al-Azhar is also thanks to the personal commitment of Ayuso Guixot, who traveled to Egypt in February 2016 to bring the Grand Imam an invitation to visit the Vatican and meet with the Pope, and so, as Ayuso himself said in an interview with Fides published at the time, "to express our sincere desire to resume the cooperation that has never been interrupted on our part and to emphasize the importance of our collaboration for the common good of all humanity. We have also invited the Grand Imam to Rome for a meeting with the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, who will accompany the Grand Imam to a private audience with Pope Francis. Without insisting too much, we hope that such a meeting will take place soon". A few months later, Imam al Tayyeb flew to Rome and met the Pope on May 23. The rest is history.
Cardinal Ayuso Guixots’ funeral will take place on Wednesday 27 November in St. Peter's Basilica and will be presided over, as usual, by the Dean of the College of Cardinals in the presence of the Pope, who will preside only over the rite of the Ultima Commendatio and the Valedictio. The Cardinal's remains will then be transferred to Spain, to Seville, the city where he was born and raised, and will be buried there in the family chapel. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 26/11/2024)
