Aloísio Lorscheider

Aloísio Leo Arlindo Lorscheider, O.F.M. (October 8, 1924 – December 23, 2007) was a prominent cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil during the 1970s and 1980s. He was renowned as an advocate of liberation theology in the 1970s and was seen by some observers as a serious candidate for the papacy in the two conclaves of 1978.
==Early life and ordination==
Lorscheider was of German descent, born Estrela, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and he entered the local Franciscan minor seminary of Taquari at the tender age of nine years. He began his novitiate in December 1942 and was ordained as a priest on August 22, 1948.
==Professor and bishop==
He taught a number of subjects - German, mathematics, Latin - but it was not long before he went to Rome to study dogmatic theology. Lorscheider received his doctorate in 1952, and returned to Brazil to teach that same subject at the Franciscan Seminary of Divinopolis.
In 1958 Lorscheider was called back to Rome to teach, and in 1962 he was rewarded for his service in this area by being made Bishop of the local diocese of Santo Ângelo. Lorscheider attended the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965, and he was then moved from this local diocese to the Archdiocese of Fortaleza in the northeastern state of Ceará.
He resigned the pastoral government of the Aparecida archdiocese at the beginning of 2004.
==Cardinal==
As Lorscheider grew in popularity with his flock and his ability as a prelate was recognised, Pope Paul VI gave him a cardinal's hat in May 1976. Although at the time he was the fourth-youngest cardinal in the college, Lorscheider already doubted his own health. However, some punters with Ladbrokes (who had him at odds of 33 to 1) considered him a serious papabile in the August 1978 conclave. 
In 1995 Lorscheider, declining in health much further than was observed during the 1970s, was transferred to the diocese of Aparecida in São Paulo State, 
==Death==
He died on December 23, 2007 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
==Views==
===Liberation theology===
He defended Leonardo Boff when that theologian was brought to heel by Ratzinger in the 1980s, and continued his strong social activism, being jailed briefly in 1993 as a result of participating in a protest against government policy. 
With the crackdown on dissent in the John Paul II papacy, especially after Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) became prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981, Lorscheider found himself opposing brother cardinals whom he had been very firmly associated with during the Montini papacy. 
===Preferential option for the poor===
During his Church career, he developed his outspoken stance on the appalling poverty that blighted the region. He believed that the Church was obliged to take a firm stand against this poverty and his hard-working and personable character allowed him to develop links with the poor that he observed to be lacking in previous generations of priests. He was a vehement critic of Brazil's military regime and its torture of political opponents and favoured a flexible approach to church structure.
===Albino Luciani===
It is also thought Lorscheider was one of the most vital supporters of Albino Luciani's rise to the papacy, and also of Karol Wojtyła's in the October 1978 conclave.
===European cardinals===
After John Paul II, died he said that the European cardinals' "sense of superiority" would not allow them to elect a non-European pope. Ineligible to vote (over the age of 80) and in poor health, Lorscheider did not attend the pre-conclave discussions for the 2005 conclave that elected Ratzinger as John Paul II's successor.
==External links==
* Biography (scroll down about two-thirds of the way)
* Influential Brazilian Cardinal, 83 Dies
* Obituary in The Times, January 14, 2008
Category:1924 births
Category:2007 deaths
Category:Brazilian cardinals
Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council
Category:Brazilian Roman Catholics
Category:Roman Catholic Church in Brazil
Category:Brazilians of German descent
Category:Franciscans
Category:People from Rio Grande do Sul
Category:Cardinals created by Pope Paul VI
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