U.S.-born Vatican diplomat

Cardinal Opilio Rossi, 93, a longtime Vatican diplomat and curial official, died Feb. 9 in Rome.

The cardinal was born in New York in 1910 to Italian parents and moved to Italy at the age of 6.

The future cardinal attended schools in the northern Italian region of Piacenza. He entered the minor seminary there at the age of 11. He later was sent to Rome, where he earned a doctorate in canon law.

Ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Piacenza in 1933, he began training for the Vatican diplomatic corps. His first assignment, in 1937, was in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

After brief postings in the Vatican embassies in Belgium and in Holland, he was sent to the Vatican representative’s office in Berlin, where he served 1940-45.

When the Second World War ended, he returned to the nunciature in Holland for several years, then was moved back to Berlin.

In 1953, Pope Pius XII named him an archbishop and nuncio to Ecuador, a post he held until 1959. After a two-year posting as nuncio to Chile, Pope John XXIII named him nuncio to Austria in 1961, a position he held for more than a dozen years.

Pope Paul VI named him to the College of Cardinals in 1976 and appointed him president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and president of the then-Pontifical Committee for the Family.

From 1983 to 1990, he served as president of the Vatican office that organizes the International Eucharistic Congresses.

Sigmund ‘Sig’ Sakowicz

Broadcaster

Chicago native and longtime broadcaster ‘Sig’ (Sigmund) Sakowicz, 80, died Feb. 7 in Las Vegas. He grew up in St. Mary of the Angels Parish, and attended Weber High School, Loyola University and DePaul University. He began publishing his own newsletter, The Sakowicz Jug, to send neighborhood news to those serving in World War II. His radio career began at WAIT in 1943. He later worked at WGN-AM, WTAQ, WHFC, WVVX, WMAQ and WPNA.

Sakowicz worked with the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1959-66 to prepare the U.S. celebration of Poland’s millennium, which included a large event at Soldier Field.

He produced, emceed and hosted three USO tours to Vietnam (in 1966, ’68, and ’69) along with his wife, Gina.

He relocated to Las Vegas from 1972-85, where he hosted CBS radio and TV shows. He covered the Academy Awards for 25 years.

Sakowicz returned to Chicago in 1985, but went back to Vegas in 1997. Each year he attended a memorial Mass here for members of his Sig Sakowicz Fan Club.

He received Poland’s Knight Cross of Order of Polonia Restituta in 1972 and the 1993 Communications Award from the Illinois Division of the Polish American Congress.

Sakowicz is survived by five children; Father Greg Sakowicz, pastor of St. Mary of the Woods Parish, Chicago, and another son, Adrian, and daughters Christine Samaan, Pamela Menaker, and Mayra Sakowicz Witt, and eight grandchildren.

Thomas Stritch

professor and author

Thomas J. Stritch, the author of a history of the Diocese of Nashville and nephew of Chicago’s Cardinal Samuel Stritch, died Jan. 22 at age 91.

Stritch was related to some of the most important figures in Tennessee Catholic history. One of his uncles was Cardinal Stritch, who grew up in Assumption Parish in Nashville. Bishop John B. Morris of Little Rock, Ark., was the oldest brother of Stritch’s mother and served 13 years as a priest in the Diocese of Nashville.

His own brother, Father Morris Stritch, was a priest in the Diocese of Memphis and died in 2001.

An aunt, the late Sister Mary Morris, was a member of the Daughters of Charity and served much of her life as the order’s U.S. representative at its headquarters in Paris.

Stritch had a nearly half-century association with the University of Notre Dame, first as student and later as professor. He taught English and eventually became chair of the department of journalism.

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