Pope Benedict will preside at the funeral Mass, from the Boston Herald:
The 87-year-old Vatican diplomat and former head of the Congregation for Saints Causes spent the greater part of his life in the Vatican’s foreign service. Born in a town near Rome, Felici studied Canon Law before joining the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, where he worked for 19 years.
In 1967, Pope Paul VI sent him on a mission to Jerusalem after the Six-Day War between Arabs and Israel is. Before heading the Vatican department responsible for candidates for sainthood, Felici served as papal nunzio, or Vatican ambassador in the Netherlands, Portugal and France. He was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1988.
