Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, the retired Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, died on July 12 at the age of 81. He had been an original member of the Council of Cardinals, resigning from that post in October 2018, shortly before he retired as Archbishop of Kinshasa in November 2019 at the age of 79. He had then devoted himself to working for peace in his war-torn country until early this month, when his health declined. He was hospitalized in Versailles, France, at the time of his death.

Ordained in the Inongo diocese in 1963, the future cardinal was named an auxiliary bishop of that diocese in 1980. He became Archbishop of Kisangani in 1988, then Archbishop of Kinshasa in 2008. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

With his death there are now 221 living members of the College of Cardinals, of whom 124 are eligible to vote in a papal conclave.