'Corrado Cardinal Bafile' (
July 41903 –
February 32005) was the oldest
cardinal in the
Roman Catholic Church in modern times.
Born in the archdiocese of L'Aquila,
Italy, Bafile was
ordained a
priest in
Rome in 1936 and worked there until 1960. In 1960 he was consecrated a
bishop by
Pope John XXIII and named
nuncio to
Germany. He remained in this post until 1975 when
Pope Paul VI named him to head the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and he became a cardinal in the
consistory of 1976. Bafile retired from the
Roman Curia in 1980 and reached the age limit for voting in papal elections in 1983; he was well enough to be received by
Pope John Paul II on his
100th birthday in 2003. He died in 2005, aged 101.