Eugênio de Araújo Sales (8 November 1920 – 9 July 2012) was a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, having been elevated by Pope Paul VI on 28 April 1969. He served as archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro for thirty years until his resignation was accepted in 2001, when he had already passed the maximum age for voting in a papal conclave. He was the Cardinal Protopriest of the Holy Roman Church and also the longest-serving living Cardinal of the Catholic Church from 16 February 2009 until his death.
Sales was born in Acari, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil to a prominent upper-class family: his father, Celso Dantas Sales, was a judge in the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. Eugênio Sales did humanistic studies as a teenager and entered the minor seminary at Natal in 1936. After spending one year in the minor seminary, Sales graduated to the major seminary at Fortaleza, where he prepared to the priesthood from 1937 to 1943.
He was ordained to the priesthood on 21 November 1943, and spent the following decade in pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Natal.
Pope Pius XII appointed Sales to the episcopate, naming him titular bishop of Thibica and auxiliary bishop of Natal on 1 June 1954. Sales was consecrated a bishop on 15 August 1954.
On 9 January 1962, Pope John XXIII named Sales Apostolic Administrator of Natal, and on 9 July 1964 Pope Paul VI transferred him to the Primatial See of São Salvador da Bahia also as apostolic administrator sede plena.
Bishop Sales attended all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965.
On 29 October 1968, Sales, until then apostolic administrator, was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of São Salvador da Bahia, becoming ex officio the Primate of Brazil.
On the consistory of 28 April 1969, Pope Paul created Archbishop Sales a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. On 30 April 1969 Cardinal Sales received his red biretta and the title of Cardinal-Priest of S. Gregorio VII.
Sales, then Metropolitan Archbishop of Salvador and Primate of Brazil was appointed papal legate to the Brazilian National Eucharistic Congress held in 1970 and in that capacity he presided over the aforementioned gathering, which took place in Brasília, the Nation's capital.
On 13 March 1971, Pope Paul VI transferred Sales to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Sales took possession of his new See on 27 March 1971. In 1972 Sales received the additional responsibility of Ordinary to the Faithful of Oriental Rite in Brazil without their own Ordinary.
As a Cardinal-elector, Sales participated in the August and October 1978 conclaves.
Sales led the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro for thirty years, between 1971 and 2001.
In the Roman Curia, Sales was appointed a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of Holy See in 1981.
While serving as Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Sales attended the II Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 1971, the III General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate in 1979, the Extraordinary Consistory (plenary meeting of the College of Cardinals) also in 1979, the V Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the Extraordinary Consistory of 1982, the VI Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, in 1983, the Extraordinary Consistory of 1985 and the Second Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, also in 1985, the 4th General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, in 1992.
Chosen by Pope John Paul II, he served as president-delegate of the Special Synod of Bishops for America that was held in 1997.
In addition to his service as papal legate a latere in 1970 and of his legation as president delegate of the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops in 1997, Sales also served as Special Papal Envoy on three occasions: the first was when, in 1991, he presided over the 12th National Eucharistic Congress of Brazil held in the city of Natal; his second appointment as special papal envoy came after his retirement as Archbishop of Rio, when he represented the Pope during the celebrations held in Aparecida marking three events: the centennial of the Coronation of the image of Our Lady Aparecida by mandate of Pope Pius X in 1904, the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and a renewed Papal Coronation of the image of Our Lady Aparecida, performed by Sales on behalf of Pope Jonh Paul II; the triple celebration took place on 8 September 2004. Sales' third mission as special papal envoy was performed when he travelled to Braga, Portugal, and there presided, on 8 December 2004 over celebrations commemorating the centennial of the coronation of the image of Our Lady of Sameiro and the sesquicentennial of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
As of July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI held three days of prayer and reflection, each on the eve of an ordinary public consistory for the creation of new Cardinals. Although those days of prayer and reflection were not convoked as formal extraordinary consistories, all members of the College of Cardinals (electors and non-electors) were summoned to attend the meetings, together with the prelates that were about to be raised to the cardinalate. Sales attended all three of those meetings, on 23 March 2006, 23 November 2007 and 19 November 2010.
In accordance with Canon Law, Sales tendered his resignation from the See of Rio de Janeiro when he became 75 years old in 1995, and he reiterated the letter of resignation a few times in the succeeding years, but Pope John Paul II only accepted Sales' resignation on 25 July 2001. Sales had already completed 80 years of age in the previous year and had thus lost, since 8 November 2000, the right to take part in a papal conclave and his membership in the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia. The fact that he was allowed to continue serving as Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro after that milestone was extremely unusual.