Who are the last surviving council fathers?

Bishop Daniel Verstraete celebrated his 100th birthday July 31; he's a member of one of the world’s most exclusive groups.

Bishop Daniel Verstraete, who celebrated his 100th birthday Wednesday, is a member of one of the world’s most exclusive groups.

A session of Vatican Council II. Lothar Wolleh via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).

He’s one of just four surviving “council fathers” who participated in the ecumenical council held in Rome from 1962 to 1965. 

Who are the members of this quartet — the last of the almost 2,450 council fathers who took part in the defining Catholic event of the 20th century? 

The Pillar takes a look.

Cardinal Francis Arinze. Padre Mimmo Spatuzzi via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Cardinal Francis Arinze (91)

Nigeria’s Cardinal Arinze is undoubtedly the best-known of the group. At a mere 91, he is also the youngest. 

He was born in 1932 to parents who practiced African traditional religion and named him Anizoba. They sent him to a mission school and at the age of nine he was baptized, taking the name Francis. He was ordained in Rome in 1958. 

As Vatican Council II drew to a close in 1965, he was appointed coadjutor bishop of his home diocese of Onitsha. At the age of 32, he was the world’s youngest Catholic bishop. He attended the final session of Vatican Council II, which ended on Dec. 8, 1965.

Two years later, he succeeded as Archbishop of Onitsha. In 1984, he was called to Rome to serve at the Secretariat for Non-Christians (today’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue) and later as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

—

Archbishop Victorinus Youn Kong-hi (99)

Victorinus Youn Kong-hi was born to a Catholic family in Nampo, in present-day North Korea, in 1924. He was ordained a priest in 1950 and appointed a year later as a chaplain to a camp for Korean War refugees in the port city of Busan.

Following studies in Rome in the late 1950s, he was named the first bishop of the Diocese of Suwon, in northwestern South Korea, in 1963. He attended the second session of Vatican Council II, held that year, as well as the third and fourth sessions in 1964 and 1965.

In 1973, he was named Archbishop of Gwangju, in southwestern Korea, serving as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea from 1975 to 1981. He retired in the year 2000.

In a book published in 2022, he said he believed the Catholic Church was growing in North Korea, despite relentless persecution by the authorities.

—

Bishop José de Jesús Sahagún de la Parra (102)

Bishop José de Jesús Sahagún de la Parra is the only surviving council father from the Americas.

He was born in Cotija, a municipality in the Mexican state of Michoacán, in 1922. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Zamora in 1946. 

In 1961, he was named the first bishop of the Diocese of Tula, in the center of Mexico. In this capacity, he attended the first, second, and fourth sessions of Vatican Council II.

In 1985, he was appointed as the first bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas, in the southern part of Michoacán state.

The oldest of the living council fathers celebrated his 100th birthday in 2022.

—

Bishop Daniel Verstraete (100)

Daniel Alphonse Omer Verstraete was born in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, in 1924. He joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and was ordained a priest in 1950.

He left Belgium at the age of 27, serving initially in the South African township of Soweto, then struggling under the Apartheid system of racial segregation.

In 1965, he was appointed prefect of South Africa’s Apostolic Prefecture of Western Transvaal, newly created from the Diocese of Johannesburg. This enabled him to attend Vatican Council II’s final session, held that year.

In 1978, the apostolic prefecture became the Diocese of Klerksdorp. Verstraete recalled in an interview that the move alarmed local Protestants. He said that he befriended a pastor who initially expressed fears about the “Roman danger.”

“I went to talk to him and we became friends,” he said. “For me, it was never about the number of souls present at the Eucharist. For me, it was about bringing people to Christ.”