Rosalio Lara

Rosalio José Castillo Lara (4 September 1922 – 16 October 2007) was a Venezuelan prelate of the Catholic Church. He worked in the Roman Curia for almost all of his career, first with responsibility for rewriting the code of canon law and then in administrative positions in the government of the Holy See. He was made acardinal in 1985.

Castillo Lara was born in San Casimiro, diocese of Maracay, in Venezuela's Aragua State, on 4 September 1922. Third son of seven children, he was ordained a priest on 4 September 1949, by his uncle, Archbishop Castillo Hernandez of Caracas.

In 1950 he went to study canon law at the Salesian Pontifical University in Turin. In September 1954, he was named professor at the faculty of canon law, at first in Turin until 1957, then in Rome until 1965. He was named titular bishop of Precausa and Coadjutor Bishop of Trujillo on 26 March 1973.

He became Secretary in 1975 and then President in 1982 of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law, which produced the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

He was promoted to archbishop on 26 May 1982. Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal during the Consistory of 25 May 1985, and two days later appointed him the first President of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, later known as the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. He had been named its Pro-President in January 1984.

He became President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See on 6 December 1989, a post to which he added on 31 October 1990, that of President of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City. He was also a member of several other bodies, including the Cardinals' Supervisory Commission for the Institute for Religious Works, commonly known as the Vatican Bank.

In 1996, he dismissed concerns about the health of Pope John Paul II, who was sufferingfrom Parkinson's disease. He said: "Certainly the tremor in the hand is terrible, and I think that for the Pope, who was once such an athlete, it is a humiliating and mortifying phenomenon. But it helps to maintain a spirit of humility, and still, he is lucid, with a remarkable memory."

Relations with the Chávez government

Castillo Lara was one of the Venezuelan ecclesiastic figures most opposed to the government of Hugo Chávez. In a 2006 homily,he asked for prayers "with fervour to the Virgin Mary to save Venezuela. We are living a very grave situation, like a few times in our history". Castillo once called Chávez "a paranoid dictator", while Chavez called Castillo "a hypocrite, bandit and devil with a cassock."