Cardinal José Freire Falcao, the retired Archbishop of Brasilia, died on September 26, at the of 95. He had been hospitalized a week earlier with complications of Covid.

Ordained in 1949 as a priest of the Diocese of Limoeiro do Norte, he became bishop of that diocese in 1967. He was named Archbishop of Teresina in 1971, then Archbishop of Brasilia in 1984, remaining in the latter post until his retirement in 2004. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

With the death of Cardinal Falcao there are now 218 living cardinals, of whom 121 are elegible to vote in a papal conclave. Remarkably, there are eight living cardinals over the age of 95.