Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, the former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, died on October 3 at the age of 94.

Ordained to the priesthood in 1954, he became an auxiliary bishop of Rancagua in 1984, then bishop of that diocese in 1987. He was named Bishop of Valparaiso in 1993, then called to Rome to become prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1996, receiving his red hat that year from Pope John Paul II. He remained as head of the Vatican dicastery until his retirement in 2008.

In April 2005 it was Cardinal Medina Estevez, as the senior cardinal-deacon, who issued the public announcement of the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

With the death of the Chilean prelate there are now 215 living members of the College of Cardinals, of whom 121 are eligible to vote in a papal conclave.