Roman Catholic Cardinal. A nephew of Msgr. Lucas Guillermo Castillo, former Archbishop of Caracas, Rosalio José Castillo Lara SDB., was born on September 4, 1922, in San Casimiro de Güiripa and joining the Pious Society of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Bogotá, Colombia, he underwent studies at the Salesian houses of study in Colombia, the Salesian Athenaeum of Turin and the University of Bonn, Germany. Ordained priest by his uncle on September 4, 1949 in Caracas, he was immediately named director of studies of St. Joseph's Institute in Los Teques. Named president of the Venezuelan Association of Catholic Educators in 1953, a year later he was appointed faculty member of Salesian Athenaeum of Turin. Numerary member of the Institute of Research and Study in Medieval Law of Toronto and later provincial of the Salesian Society in Venezuela, he furthermore acted as regional assistant of the Congregation for Latin America in Southern Cone and general counselor for the Pastoral Care for Youth. Appointed coadjutor with right of succession of the diocese of Trujillo, Venezuela, by Pope Paul VI on March 26, 1973, he received his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Praecausa on the following May 24 in Caracas from Cardinal José Humberto Quintero Parra. Appointed secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law on February 12, 1975, he was named president of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia on October 5, 1981, pro-president of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law on May 22, 1982 and pro-president of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law on January 18, 1984. Promoted to archbishop on May 26, 1982, Pope John Paul II created him cardinal deacon in the consistory of May 25, 1985 with the deaconry of Nostra Signora di Coromoto in San Giovanni di Dio and named him president of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law two days later. Appointed president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See on December 6, 1989 and president of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City on October 31, 1990, he resigned the presidency of the administration on June 24, 1995 and opted for the order of cardinal priests with his deaconry was elevated 'pro hac vice' to title on January 29, 1996. Resigning the presidency on October 14, 1997, he returned to Venezuela in 1997, settling in his native San Casimiro. The Cardinal died on Tuesday, October 16, 2007, at 7.40 am., inside the Centro Médico de Caracas of Venezuela, where he had been hospitalized since September 19 due to acute respiratory deficiency. Taken to the city of Güiripa in the state of Aragua, he was laid to rest in the local Santuario de María Auxiliadora.