Pope Francis has chosen his first batch of Cardinals. Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are currently eligible to elect the next Pope. The ceremony to formally install them as Cardinals will be held on Feb. 22nd at the Vatican, the Feast of the Chair of St Peter.
ope
Francis named his first batch of cardinals on Sunday, choosing 19 men
from Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere, including the developing
nations of Haiti and Burkina Faso, in line with his belief that the
church must pay more attention to the poor.
Francis made the announcement as he spoke from his studio window to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are currently eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal’s most important task. The ceremony to formally install them as cardinals will be held Feb. 22 at the Vatican.
Since his election in March as the first pontiff from Latin America, the pope has broken tradition after tradition in terms of protocol and style at the Vatican. But in Sunday’s list Francis stuck to the church’s rule of having no more than 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next pontiff.
The College of Cardinals is currently 13 shy of that 120-mark among eligible-to-vote members. In addition, three cardinals will turn 80 by May. That means Francis chose the exact number of new cardinals needed to bring the voting ranks up to 120 during the next few months.
Some appointments were expected, including that of his new secretary of state, the Italian archbishop Pietro Parolin, and the German head of the Vatican’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller. Two others named Sunday also come from the curia, as the Holy See’s Rome-based bureaucracy is known.
But some names were surprising.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s selection of churchmen from Haiti and Burkina Faso reflects Francis’ attention to the destitute as a core part of the church’s mission.
Also chosen to become a “prince of the church,” as the cardinals are known, was Mario Aurelio Poli, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, a post Francis left when he was elected as the first Latin American pope in March. Poli had impressed Francis by earning a degree in social work from the public university of Buenos Aires.
In the case of the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, the selection of Orani Joao Tempesta was widely hoped for back home as a kind of reward for Monsignor Orani Joao Tempesta’s work in organizing Francis’ wildly popular visit to that city in July.
Whether one continent or country has a large contingent of cardinals is heavily watched when it comes time to pick the next pope because churchmen could vote as a geographic bloc in hope of furthering the interests of their flock back home.
Not counting the four picks from the curia, who no longer represent the church in their homelands, the others new voting cardinals include two from Europe, three from North and Central America, three from South America, and two apiece from Africa and Asia.
Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, in Britain, called his appointment a “humbling moment” of service to the church.
The youngest new cardinal chosen by Francis is the 55-year-old Monsignor Chibly Langlois from Haiti.
In reading out the names, Francis said the new cardinals, coming from “every part of the world represent the deep church ecclesial relationship between the church of Rome and the other churches scattered throughout the world.”
Francis has stressed that the church hierarchy must not view itself as an elite aloof from its flock but instead serve its flock, especially for the poor, others on the edges of society and disillusioned faithful.
Once again on Sunday, a pope has passed over a prominent churchman in predominantly Catholic Ireland as a potential cardinal: Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. He has irritated some in the Vatican by strongly criticizing how the hierarchy handled the worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal.
In a sentimental touch in Sunday’s selections, the three men chosen as cardinals who are too old to vote for the next pope include 98-year-old Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, who had served as personal secretary to Pope John XXIII. That late pontiff will be made a saint along with John Paul II in a ceremony at the Vatican in April.
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/World/2014/01/12/Pope-to-appoint-19-new-cardinals-from-Asia-Africa-Caribbean-elsewhere-in-February.html#IHkJCzUBqT5diIGo.99
Here's the list....Francis made the announcement as he spoke from his studio window to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are currently eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal’s most important task. The ceremony to formally install them as cardinals will be held Feb. 22 at the Vatican.
Since his election in March as the first pontiff from Latin America, the pope has broken tradition after tradition in terms of protocol and style at the Vatican. But in Sunday’s list Francis stuck to the church’s rule of having no more than 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next pontiff.
The College of Cardinals is currently 13 shy of that 120-mark among eligible-to-vote members. In addition, three cardinals will turn 80 by May. That means Francis chose the exact number of new cardinals needed to bring the voting ranks up to 120 during the next few months.
Some appointments were expected, including that of his new secretary of state, the Italian archbishop Pietro Parolin, and the German head of the Vatican’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller. Two others named Sunday also come from the curia, as the Holy See’s Rome-based bureaucracy is known.
But some names were surprising.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s selection of churchmen from Haiti and Burkina Faso reflects Francis’ attention to the destitute as a core part of the church’s mission.
Also chosen to become a “prince of the church,” as the cardinals are known, was Mario Aurelio Poli, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, a post Francis left when he was elected as the first Latin American pope in March. Poli had impressed Francis by earning a degree in social work from the public university of Buenos Aires.
In the case of the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, the selection of Orani Joao Tempesta was widely hoped for back home as a kind of reward for Monsignor Orani Joao Tempesta’s work in organizing Francis’ wildly popular visit to that city in July.
Whether one continent or country has a large contingent of cardinals is heavily watched when it comes time to pick the next pope because churchmen could vote as a geographic bloc in hope of furthering the interests of their flock back home.
Not counting the four picks from the curia, who no longer represent the church in their homelands, the others new voting cardinals include two from Europe, three from North and Central America, three from South America, and two apiece from Africa and Asia.
Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, in Britain, called his appointment a “humbling moment” of service to the church.
The youngest new cardinal chosen by Francis is the 55-year-old Monsignor Chibly Langlois from Haiti.
In reading out the names, Francis said the new cardinals, coming from “every part of the world represent the deep church ecclesial relationship between the church of Rome and the other churches scattered throughout the world.”
Francis has stressed that the church hierarchy must not view itself as an elite aloof from its flock but instead serve its flock, especially for the poor, others on the edges of society and disillusioned faithful.
Once again on Sunday, a pope has passed over a prominent churchman in predominantly Catholic Ireland as a potential cardinal: Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. He has irritated some in the Vatican by strongly criticizing how the hierarchy handled the worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal.
In a sentimental touch in Sunday’s selections, the three men chosen as cardinals who are too old to vote for the next pope include 98-year-old Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, who had served as personal secretary to Pope John XXIII. That late pontiff will be made a saint along with John Paul II in a ceremony at the Vatican in April.
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/World/2014/01/12/Pope-to-appoint-19-new-cardinals-from-Asia-Africa-Caribbean-elsewhere-in-February.html#IHkJCzUBqT5diIGo.99
- Archbishop Pietro Parolin (Italy)
- Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri (Italy)
- Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla (Italy) *
- Archbishop, Beniamino Stella (Italy)
- Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti (Italy)
- Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar (Spain) *
- Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller (Germany)
- Archbishop Vincent Nichols (Britain)
- Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix (Canada)
- Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa (Ivory Coast)
- Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso)
- Archbishop Orani João Tempesta (Brazil)
- Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli (Argentina)
- Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano (Nicaragua)
- Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello (Chile)
- Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo (Philippines)
- Archbishop Chibly Langlois (Haiti)
- Monsignor Kelvin Edward Felix (St Lucia) *
- Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung (South Korea)
Below are a few interesting comments I've gathered from social media ....
"Sad that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin is missing from the list of new cardinals. No doubt the thinking was that more cardinals from the Third World means fewer from Europe. But Archbishop Martin, showed tremendous courage and honesty in addressing the sex abuse scandal."
" Diarmuid Martin, was passed over once again. While I love the direction of these appointments (more pastors, fewer academics, and fewer Curialists), I am disappointed that Martin, who has been so courageous in addressing the abuse scandal in the Irish church, was not selected. His nomination would have said volumes about the seriousness that the institutional church plans to take about abuse revelations in the future."
" The one ordinary of an Italian diocese named is an interesting choice - Perugia. Passing over Venice and Turin, which have had Cardinals for multiple centuries. One of Perugia's suffragan dioceses is a little place called Assisi !"
"It is significant to me that a bishop in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti, was elevated to the College of Cardinals. Love it."
NEW UPDATE
* * *
" Dear Brother,On the day in which your designation is made public to be part of the College of Cardinals, I wish to express to you a cordial greeting together with the assurance of my closeness and my prayer. I hope that, as associate of the Church of Rome, clothed in the virtues and sentiments of the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 13:14), you will be able to help me, with fraternal effectiveness, in my service to the universal Church.
The Cardinalate does not signify a promotion, or an honour, or a decoration. It is simply a service that calls for enlarging one’s vision and widening one’s heart. And, although it seems a paradox, this ability to look far ahead and to love more universally with greater intensity can only be acquired by following the same way of the Lord: the way of abasement and humility, taking the form of a servant (cf. Philippians 2;5-8). Therefore, I ask you, please, to receive this designation with a simple and humble heart.
And, although you must do so with joy and gladness, do it in such a way that this sentiment is far from any expression of worldliness, from any celebration that is foreign to the evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty.
Farewell, then, until next February 20, in which we will begin two days of reflection on the family. I remain at your disposition and, please, I ask you to pray and to have others pray for me."
May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin protect you.
Fraternally,
FRANCIS."
From the Vatican, January 12, 2014.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Updated - Related articles
No comments:
Post a Comment