Nationality Albanian Reference style His Eminence | Birth name Ernest Simoni Ordination 7 April 1956 Created cardinal 19 November 2016 Spoken style His Eminence | |
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Born 18 October 1928 (age 88)Troshani, Albania ( 1928-10-18 ) Motto Zemra Jeme Dotë Triumfojë | ||
Ernest Simoni Troshani (born 18 October 1928) is an Albanian priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
Contents
He was created a cardinal in a consistory celebrated on 19 November 2016 by Pope Francis.
Card ernest simoni troshani
Life
Ernest Simoni was born in 1928.
He entered the Franciscan college in 1938 while remaining there until 1948 when the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha closed the college in a wave of anti-religious sentiment and persecution. He was ordained to the priesthood on 7 April 1956.
On 24 December 1963 he was imprisoned by the Communist authorities because he celebrated a Mass in memory of assassinated President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was converted into prison and penal labour for 25 years. He was released after 18 years. By the late 1990s, he exercised his ministry in several Albanian villages.
On 21 September 2014 he met Pope Francis during his apostolic visit to Albania and provided the pope with his own testimony on his experiences under the Communist regime.
On 9 October 2016, Pope Francis announced that he would create Simoni a cardinal in the consistory held on 19 November of the same year. Aged over 80, Simoni will not participate in any future conclave. He was given a special dispensation not to be consecrated as a bishop prior to the consistory.
At the consistory, he was granted the cardinal diaconate of Santa Maria della Scala.
