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Leo Joseph Suenens (Leo Jozef Suenens) was born on 16 July, 1904 in Ixelles, Kingdom of Belgium, is a Catholic cardinal. Discover Leo Joseph Suenens's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 91 years old?

Popular As Leo Jozef Suenens
Occupation N/A
Age 91 years old
Zodiac Sign Cancer
Born 16 July, 1904
Birthday 16 July
Birthplace Ixelles, Kingdom of Belgium
Date of death 6 May, 1996
Died Place Brussels, Kingdom of Belgium
Nationality Belgium

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 16 July. He is a member of famous with the age 91 years old group.

Leo Joseph Suenens Height, Weight & Measurements

At 91 years old, Leo Joseph Suenens height not available right now. We will update Leo Joseph Suenens's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
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Dating & Relationship status

He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.

Family
Parents Jean-Baptiste Suenens Jeanne Janssens
Wife Not Available
Sibling Not Available
Children Not Available

Leo Joseph Suenens Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Leo Joseph Suenens worth at the age of 91 years old? Leo Joseph Suenens’s income source is mostly from being a successful . He is from Belgium. We have estimated Leo Joseph Suenens's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income

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Timeline

1904

Leo Jozef Suenens (16 July 1904 – 6 May 1996) was a Belgian prelate of the Catholic Church.

1911

Losing his father (who had owned a restaurant) at age four, Leo lived with his mother in the rectory of his priest-uncle from 1911 to 1912.

Wealthy relatives wanted him to study economics and manage their fortune, but he chose the priesthood.

1920

He studied at Saint Mary's Institute in Schaerbeek and then entered the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1920.

1927

From the Gregorian he obtained a doctorate in theology and in philosophy (1927), and a master's degree in canon law (1929).

Suenens had taken as his mentor Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, who had also sent him to Rome.

Ordained to the priesthood on 4 September 1927 by Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, Suenens initially served as a professor at Saint Mary's Institute and then taught moral philosophy and pedagogy at the Minor Seminary of Mechelen from 1930 to 1940.

1940

He worked as a chaplain to the 9th artillery regiment of the Belgian Army in Southern France for three months, and in August 1940 he became vice-rector of the famed Catholic University of Louvain.

1941

Raised to the rank of Monsignor in October 1941, he was included on a list of thirty hostages who were to be executed by the Nazis, but the Allied liberation of Belgium occurred shortly before these orders could be carried out.

1943

When the Louvain's rector was arrested by Nazi forces in 1943, Suenens took over as acting rector, where he sometimes circumvented and sometimes openly defied the directives of the Nazi occupiers.

1945

On 12 November 1945, he was appointed by Pope Pius XII as Auxiliary Bishop of Mechelen and Titular Bishop of Isinda.

Suenens received his episcopal consecration on the following 16 December from Cardinal van Roey, with Bishops Étienne Joseph Carton de Wiart and Jan van Cauwenbergh serving as co-consecrators.

1961

He served as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels from 1961 to 1979, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1962.

Suenens was a leading voice at the Second Vatican Council advocating for reform in the Church.

Leo Suenens was born at Ixelles, the only child of Jean-Baptiste and Jeanne (née Janssens) Suenens.

He was baptised by his uncle, who was a priest.

He was named Archbishop of Mechelen on 24 November 1961; the primatial Belgian see was renamed Mechelen-Brussels on 8 December of the same year.

1962

Suenens was created Cardinal Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli by Pope John XXIII in the consistory of 19 March 1962.

When Pope John XXIII called the world's bishops to Rome for the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), he found in Suenens a man who shared his views on the need for renewal in the Church.

When the first session fell into organizational chaos under the weight of its documents, it was Suenens who, at the invitation of the Pope, rescued it from deadlock and essentially set the agenda for the entire Council.

Paul VI made him one of the four moderators of the council, along with Cardinals Gregorio Pietro Agagianian, Julius Döpfner, and Giacomo Lercaro.

Suenens was also believed to be a decisive force behind the Conciliar documents Lumen gentium and Gaudium et spes.

Suenens died from thrombosis in Brussels at age 91, and was buried at St. Rumbold's Cathedral.

At the time of his death he was one of the four living Cardinals elevated by Pope John XXIII.

After his death, Belgian police drilled into his tomb and that of Cardinal Jozef-Ernest Van Roey, searching for documents connected to the sex abuse scandal, which had supposedly been buried with the cardinals.

Dialogue with other Christian denominations as well as with other religions, the proper role of the laity, modernization of religious life for women, collegiality, religious liberty, collaboration and corresponsibility in the Church were among the causes he advocated at the council.

Pope John Paul II himself later attested that "Cardinal Suenens had played a decisive part in the Council".

He was described by his successor, Godfried Danneels, as “an excellent weather-forecaster who know from which direction the wind was blowing in the Church, and an experienced strategist who realized that he could not change the wind’s direction but he could set the sails to suit it."

1963

Suenens was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1963 papal conclave which selected Pope Paul VI.

1969

In May 1969, an interview he gave to the French Catholic magazine Informations Catholiques Internationales in which he offered a critique of the Roman Curia.

Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant subsequently demanded a retraction, but Suenens refused and declared that Tisserant's reaction as unacceptable and unfounded.

1979

He also voted in the conclaves of August and October 1978, and finally resigned from his post in Mechelen-Brussels on 4 October 1979 after seventeen years of service.

In 1979, Suenens remarked about it, "There are times when loyalty demands more than keeping in step with an old piece of music. As far as I am concerned loyalty is a different kind of love. And this demands that we accept responsibility for the whole and serve the Church with as much courage and candor as possible."

Committed to ecumenism, he and Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury were close friends.

During the council's debates on marriage, Suenens accused the Church of holding procreation above conjugal love; Pope Paul was greatly distressed by this and the Cardinal later denied "that he had questioned the authentic Church teaching on marriage".

According to Time Magazine, Suenens counseled the Pope against the releasing of his Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae.

Suenens once remarked, "If you don't believe in the Holy Spirit or Resurrection or life after death, you should leave the Church."

He endorsed the Catholic Charismatic Renewal; his episcopal motto was In Spiritu Sancto ("In the Holy Spirit").

His written works that have appeared in English include: