Statement from Cardinal Joan Josep Omella i Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, to the people of Barcelona: “The ways of the lord are inscrutable” - Statement from Cardinal Joan Josep Omella i Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, to the people of Barcelona: “The ways of the lord are inscrutable”

To the People of God who worship in Barcelona.

It is with immense pain that I must inform you that our beloved Auxiliary Bishop Mons. Antoni Vadell i Ferrer has left us and is now with God.

Medications, physicians and healthcare staff did everything in their power but there was nothing more to do.

All of us, the holy people of the Lord, have prayed and followed his condition closely and we are deeply saddened by his rapid demise, as we hardly had a chance to say goodbye.

We entrust him to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary in his much beloved invocations of Mercè, Montserrat and Our Lady of Lluc.

We ask and trust that, from the house of the Father, he will help us in the evangelism that he held so dear in his pastoral heart.

We put in the Lord’s hands his mother, Da Antonia, his brother Joan and other relatives, and all those who cared for him so devotedly during his illness.

Rest in peace dear brother Antonio. Keep us in your heart as our brother and friend because you will always be in ours. May resurrected Christ give you eternal life.

† Cardinal Joan Josep Omella i Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona