Aloisio Lorscheider, 83, one of Latin America's most influential cardinals, died Sunday after a lengthy hospital stay in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Brazilian cardinal was hospitalized in early December with a heart condition, the Aparecida Archdiocese said in a statement.
The two-time president of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops played an influential role in the two conclaves of 1978 and pushed for the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland, who became Pope John Paul II.
Lorscheider created a stir in Brazil in 1998 when he doubted the healing effects of popular tiny rice-paper pills linked to Friar Galvao, who this year became Brazil's first native-born saint.
Tatsuzo Shimaoka, 88, a potter who was designated a "living national treasure" in Japan for his mastery of his craft, died of a stroke Dec. 11 in Mashiko, Japan. Shimaoka's pottery, primarily tablewares, expressed the philosophy that beauty was to be found in utility, and art in humility. The work was characterized as mingei, a term created from minshuteki kogei, or "craft of the people."
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