Archbishop, Archdiocese of Detroit
1983
Bio:
Back ground information was gathered for the Official Web Site for the Archdiocese of Detroit, http://www.aodonline.org/AODOnline/History+and+Archives+124 And a Detroit Free Press article May 18, 1981, Section A, Vol 151 #14, p. 1, 8. His Eminence, Edmund Casimir Cardinal Szoka was born on the 14th of September 1927 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ordained in 1954, Szoka was appointed the first bishop of Gaylord Michigan in 1971. Ten years later, Szoka was appointed Eighth Ordinary and Third Archbishop of Detroit in 1981. Cardinal Szoka was created Cardinal Priest of SS. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Cielo, Roma in June 1988 and appointed President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See in 1990. In 1991 Szoka was appointed president of the Governatorate of Vatican City State and appointed President of Vatican City State in February 2001. In his homily at the time of his installation ceremony in Cobo Arena, Cardinal Szoka "urged his flock 'to live the life of faith,' which means, he said, 'to be able to look at every man, woman and child and see a humam being created in the image and likeness of God. Whatever the color of the skin, whatever the ethnic heritage, whatever the social status...I must believe that the way I treat any human being is the way I treat Christ Jesus himself.'" (Detroit Free Press, page 8) The Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree was conferred on His Eminence during Commencement, University of Detroit, May 14, 1983.