Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal passes away at 86

VIDAL (CDN FILE PHOTO)

Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal is dead.

“It is with great sadness that I announce the death of Cardinal Vidal. He has returned to the Father’s home at 7:28 a.m. today,” said Msgr. Joseph Tan, the spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu.

Details of Vidal’s interment had yet to be discussed. “I ask the people to pray for his eternal repose,” Tan said.

Tan said he had no full details yet on Vidal’s cause of death.

“The doctors’ last bulletin was that he was in stable condition. But as it is, his heart may have given up due to his age,” he said.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma gave Vidal the Sacrament of Extreme Unction last Oct. 11, shortly after the 86-year-old cardinal went unconscious at the Perpetual Succour Hospital in Cebu City.

The sacrament is performed on a seriously ill person for spiritual and physical strength.

Vidal, the country’s most senior cardinal, was unconscious on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.

He, however, showed positive signs on Friday morning when he began to open his eyes.

Vidal, who served as archbishop of Cebu for 29 years before he retired in 2011, was rushed by his nurse from his retirement house in Sto. Niño Village in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City to the Perpetual Succour Hospital past 2 a.m. last Wednesday, October 11, due to fever and shortness of breath.

Since 2014, Vidal has been going in and out of the hospital due to pneumonia.

In 2004, Vidal underwent a coronary angiogram procedure, an examination of the heart and blood vessels, and had a pacemaker installed to normalize his heart beat.

On Sept. 23, 2013, Vidal was rushed to the hospital after a mild stroke.

The native of Mogpog in Marinduque chose to spend his retirement years in Cebu where he continues to preside over Masses and attend special events in the country’s biggest archdiocese.