Charles Buttigieg writes:

He was best known for his proficient and enthusiastic service to the Holy See and the international community in the area of social communications.

Cardinal Foley was born on November 11, 1935 in Darby, Pennsylvania (US). He passed away on Sunday at Villa St Joseph, a residence for retired Archdiocesan priests in Darby.

Known for his intense love for the Church, his zeal for communicating the gospel, his social communication expertise and his particular communication skills, Cardinal Foley is being remembered all over the world.

Not too many Maltese people may have had the privilege of coming to know Cardinal Foley personally. Nevertheless, he loved Malta and the Maltese. On learning that one was Maltese, along with his always present smile, he also used to happily offer a friendly greeting in Maltese.

An expert on ethics in communication, Cardinal Foley used to stress three basic moral foundations of communication: the overriding importance of truth, the dignity of the human person and the promotion of the common good.

Cardinal Foley believed in the principle that being is better than having. “Truth is, or at least should be, a basic principle in all communication and a basic truth for all of us to consider is that being is prior to and indeed essentially better than having,” he is on record saying.

There was an occasion when he argued in favour of this principle as follows: There are some people who think that if they don’t have the fanciest car or the latest shoes or the shirt with the correct logo, they are “out of it”, not worthy of the esteem of their peers. But our essential God-given human dignity is not based upon our possessions. We also know that our dignity is enhanced not by the shirt we wear or the car we drive but by the virtues we manifest and by our authenticity and integrity.

Cardinal Foley was a firm believer that, in announcing Christ, the Church must use, with vigour and ability, its own means of social communication. He used to emphasise that Catholic communicators must be intrepid and creative to develop the new means of social communication and the new methods of proclamation.

He knew very well that modern information and communications technologies, of which the internet is certainly the most evident expression, have and will continue to have a profound impact on the economic, social and cultural life of the human family.

On learning of Cardinal Foley’s death, Pope Benedict XVI recalled with gratitude the cardinal’s years of priestly ministry in his beloved Archdiocese of Philadelphia, his distinguished service to the Holy See as president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and, more recently, his labours on behalf of the Christian communities of the Holy Land.

The Pope prayed that Cardinal Foley’s lifelong commitment to the Church’s presence in the media will inspire others to take up this apostolate so essential to the proclamation of the gospel and the progress of the new evangelisation.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.