KHARTOUM, NOVEMBER 22, 2016 (CISA) – Gabriel Cardinal Zubeir Wako has retired as the archbishop of the archdiocese of Khartoum at the age of 75 as required by the Canon law of the Catholic Church.
“The time has come for me to officially retire. After this mass, only when I have the desire to celebrate Mass with you, I would do it; but it is not going to be the program of life as before,” Cardinal Wako said as he announced his retirement to the congregation at St. Matthew’s Cathedral Khartoum on Sunday November 20.
Cardinal Zubeir Wako, previously the Bishop of Wau in South Sudan, became Archbishop of Khartoum on the 10th of October 1981 making his term in office as the Archbishop of Khartoum for 35 years.
The new archbishop of Khartoum, Michael Didi Adgum Mungoria, former bishop of El-Obeied, will be installed December 9.
Born on February 27, 1941 in Mboro village, Wau County in South Sudan, Cardinal Wako was ordained a priest on July 21, 1963.
He was appointed Bishop of Wau in 1974, and was proclaimed a Cardinal-Priest of Sant Atanasio via Tiburtina by Pope John Paul II on 21 October 2003.
He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
