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Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, the head of India’s autonomous Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, died in Kochi, India on April 1 of heart disease. The 84-year-old cardinal, who had cut back on his public activities after surviving a serious heart attack in 2009, suffered another attack soon after celebrating Mass in is private chapel. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died soon thereafter. A Redemptorist priest, then-Father Varkey Vithayathil was named apostolic administrator of Ernakulum, the primatial see of the Syro-Malabar Church, in 1996, upon the retirement of Cardinal Antony Padiyara. In 1999 he was formally named as...