Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, passed away on 25 Monday, November at the age of 72 at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where he was hospitalized.
For his health reasons, Vatican News explains, the cardinal was hospitalized on several occasions and underwent various surgeries.
Pope Francis had asked for prayers for him, during an audience with the International Janist Delegation in the Vatican: “I would like to share with you some news that is not nice: the head of this dicastery, Cardinal Ayuso, is in very poor health and is at the end of his life. A prayer for him.”
Monsignor José Ángel Saiz Meneses, Archbishop of Seville —the Spanish city where the cardinal was born— wrote on his X account: “Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, has passed away in Rome. Born in Seville on June 17, 1952. Comboni missionary, professor, writer, theologian, Arabist and Islamologist. May he rest in peace. Our prayers and the prayer.”
Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot has been the prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in the Vatican since 2019 when it was still a pontifical council.
On 30 June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Secretary of the Pontifical Council—now Dicastery—for Interreligious Dialogue. Four years later, Pope Francis elevated him to the dignity of bishop and Ayuso received episcopal consecration on 19 March 2016, with the Holy Father as principal consecrator.
Pope Francis appointed him president of the Pontifical Council—today Dicastery—for Interreligious Dialogue and created him cardinal in the consistory of 5 October 2019.
That year, Cardinal Ayuso accompanied Pope Francis on his trips to the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, as well as to Thailand and Japan. He was also present on the Holy Father’s historic trip to Iraq.
In 2022, he travelled with Pope Francis to Kazakhstan and Bahrain. He also travelled to Mongolia in September 2023 but was unable to continue travelling due to illness