Looking at the New Cardinals

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Looking at the New Cardinals

[2010-10-21]

[Engleză]

On Wednesday, October 20, Benedict XVI announced he would create 24 cardinals at a Consistory on November 20, one month from now. Who are some of the men he chose and what are they like?

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

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(Note: Inside the Vatican magazine will organize a small pilgrimage, limited to 12 people, to visit the Vatican and attend the consistory. The pilgrimage is nearly sold out. If you would like to join us, see the end of this newsflash for further details and contact information.)

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The new cardinals

Pope Benedict announced he will hold a Consistory on Saturday, November 20 to create 24 new cardinals

Here, again, is the list in the order that Benedict read the names on October 20:

1. Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Italy
2. Antonio Naguib, patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts, Egypt
3. Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, Guinea (Africa)
4. Francesco Monterisi, archpriest of St Paul"s Outside the Walls, Italy
5. Fortunato Baldelli, major penitentiary of the Roman Church, Italy
6. Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, USA
7. Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Switzerland
8. Paolo Sardi, pro-Patron of the Order of Malta, Italy
9. Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Italy
10. Velasio DePaolis CS, prefect for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See (& papal delegate to the Legionaries of Christ), Italy
11. Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Italy
12. Medardo Joseph Mazombwe, archbishop-emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia
13. Raul Eduardo Vela Chiliboga, archbishop-emeritus of Quito, Ecuador
14. Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Zaire
15. Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo, Italy
16. Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, USA
17. Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil
18. Kazmierz Nycz, archbishop of Warsaw, Poland
19. Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka
20. Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany

Those over age 80:

21. Archbishop Jose Manuel Estepa Llaurens, Military Ordinary-emeritus of Spain, Spain
22. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president-emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Italy
23. Msgr Walter Brandmuller, president-emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Historical Sciences, Germany
24. Msgr Domenico Bartolucci, director-emeritus of the Sistine Choir, Italy

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The place of Amato

It is generally believed that the cardinal named first by the Pope in a list of names is especially close to the Pope. On more than one occasions in the past, the first cardinal on the list has later become Pope.

On this list, the first spot is given by the Pope to Cardinal-designate Angelo Amato (photo).

Amato was Benedict"s assistant when Benedict was the Prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He now heads the Congregations for the Causes of Saints. He is a very bright and well-trained man, and Benedict has shone a spotlight on him by placing him first on the list.

A video on the Pope"s choices

Here is a link to a brief, 2-minute video from RomeReports of the Pope"s decision to name 24 new cardinals.

The video contains footage showing many of the men named, including Amato, the first of the cardinals named, and Gianfranco Ravasi (photo). the 11th named, also Italian, a brilliant scripture scholar and exegete who is heading up the Pope"s Council for Culture.

One little glitch in the video is that the man said to be Raymond Burke -- unless my eyes deceive me -- is not Raymond Burke at all, but another American prelate.

The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx-OQg17raE&feature=player_embedded

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A puzzle: why were 20 named, one over the limit, not 19?

In the run-up to the Pope"s decision, most observers expected the Pope to name 19 men for 19 slots under age 80.

But instead, he named 20.

This means that, after the Consistory on November 20, there will be 121 cardinals of voting age -- one more than the 120 limit.

This is puzzling, because Pope Benedict suggested in February 2006, when he announced his first Consistory, that he intended to adhere to the 120-voting cardinal limit. And thus far he has kept his word.

One web commentator has made the somewhat macabre suggested that the Pope chose one extra cardinals because he has received reliable information that one of the present under-80 cardinals is gravely ill and will die soon.

Anura Guruge, a Sri Lankan with British citizenship who lives in New Hampshire in the USA, has a quite interesting blog on the College of Cardinals with many graphs and charts. He thinks Pope Benedict knows one of his cardinals is ill or dying . Here is a link: http://popes-and-papacy.com/wordpress/

Guruge"s web blog contians the following argument on the matter: "1. When announcing his very first consistory on February 27, 2006, this Pope, Benedict XVI indicated that he, unlike his esteemed predecessor, would not exceed Paul VI’s 120 (limit). 2. In his other two consistories this Pope did not exceed 120. 3. If a Pope is going to exceed the 120, as John Paul II did, then there is little point doing so by just one (spot) especially when 6 more slots will open up before Easter 2011. So rather than 121, 126 would have been better. 4. At his last Consistory, i.e., November 25, 2007, this Pope did the same thing… and now we know how and why... The November 24, 2007 consistory was announced on October 17, 2007. He named 18 prospective cardinals. That would have resulted in 121 electors. But, Japanese cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao died, of lung cancer, on November 8, 2007. This ensured that there were only 120 electors after the consistory. We now know, that Cardinal Hamao met privately with Benedict XVI on October 9, 2007 and appraised him of his medical condition! The consistory announcement was made 8 days later and one cannot but assume that the Pope factored this in."

I had not known that Cardinal Hamao spoke with Pope Benedict on October 9, 2007, about his terminal illness. I do not know how reliable in the source of this information, but if true -- and there seems no reason to believe it isn"t true -- it might explain why the Pope selected one more cardinal than expected on that occasion.

But could such a consideration have played a role in selecting one extra cardinal this time as well?

We simply do not know.

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Speaking of Sri Lanka...

Since the man behind this website, Guruge, is from Sri Lanka, he is intrigued by the choice of his co-national, the archbishop of Sri Lanka"s capital, Malcolm Ranjith (the 19th cardinal chosen), as one of the new cardinals, and he has some interesting and sometimes humorous material on the blog about the "pros" and "cons" of Ranjith possibly being "papabile," that is, an eventual candidate for the papacy.

For example, he puts as a "pro" the fact that Ranjith is "very closely aligned with the current Pope. Then he puts as a "con" that he is... "very closely aligned to the current Pope." (!)

In a more serious vein, one of his correspondents notes these points about cardinal-designate Ranjith:

1) His ability to speak a few European languages (a plus to converse with many cardinals and for the Universal Church), a crucial criterion for Popes in the 21st Century.

2) His service as Nuncio in the largest Islamic country, Indonesia, has given him some diplomatic experience, but more importantly, experience in maintaining a dialogue with Islam, a conflict area the Church faces today.

3) Ranjith has served in two different curia positions (Propaganda Fide and Congregation for Divine Worship); so he has an operational knowledge of the Vatican.

4) Being Asian actually gives an advantage as many Oceanic, Asian and African Cardinals will favor someone from their part of the world as opposed to North American or European.

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A powerful pro-life address by Archbishop Burke (soon to be Cardinal Burke)

On October 9 in Rome, Archbishop Raymond Burke addressed a pro-life prayer conference sponsored by Human Life International, based in Front Royal, Virginia, USA, with offices also in Rome.

The address did not go completely unnoticed, but it also did not receive the worldwide notice it deserves. By publishing the text here, I hope to ake the text better known.

Burke here offers a type of "manifesto" for the Church"s pro-life teaching and work in an increasingly secular, hedonistic and anti-life world. Here is the text:

WORLD PRAYER CONGRESS FOR LIFE

ISTITUTO PATRISTICO «AUGUSTINIANUM»

Via Paolo VI, 25, 00193 ROMA

October 9, 2010

CATHOLIC ORTHODOXY; ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE CULTURE OF DEATH

By Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura

Introduction

It is clear that we are presently experiencing a period of intense and critical struggle in the advancement
of the culture of life in the world. Many governments and international organizations openly and aggressively follow a secularist, anti-life and anti-family agenda. Even though religious language may be used and the name of God invoked, programs and policies are proposed for the people without respect for God and His Law, in the words of the Venerable Pope John Paul II, "as if God did not exist" (Pope John Paul II, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici, "On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World," 30 December 1988, no. 34).

Now more than ever, the world needs the consistent witness to the truth, expressed in the Sacred Scriptures and in Tradition, which is the condition of the possibility of a culture which respects fully the gift of human life and its origin in procreation, that is, in the cooperation of man and woman with God through the conjugal union and through education in the home which they have formed by marriage.

In his Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate, "On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth,"
given on June 29th of 2009, Pope Benedict XVI teaches us that the development for which God has created man is achieved through the establishment of the culture of life:

"Hence charity and truth confront us with an altogether new and creative challenge, one that is certainly vast and complex. It is about broadening the scope of reason and making it capable of knowing and directing these powerful new forces [in the development of peoples], animating them within the perspective of that "civilization of love" whose seed God has planted in every people, in every culture (Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate, "On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth," 29 June 2009, no. 33).

Our tireless promotion of the culture of life, in accord with the truth announced in the Magisterium of the Church, in fact, responds to the deepest longing in every man, and in every society. It anticipates and prepares "a new heaven and a new earth," which Our Lord Jesus Christ will inaugurate at His Final Coming (Rv 21:1).

Fundamental Presuppositions

A first fundamental presupposition of my presentation is the truth that the struggle against total
secularization, which is, by definition, opposed to human life and to the family, is full of hope. It is, by no means, futile, that is, ultimately destined to failure. The fundamental presupposition is the victory of life, which Our Lord Jesus Christ, has already won.

Christ animates the Church in time with the grace of His victory over sin and death, until the victory reaches its consummation, at His Final Coming, in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Notwithstanding the grave situation, in our world, of the attack on innocent and defenseless human life and on the integrity of marriage as the union of man and woman in a bond of lifelong, faithful and procreative love, there remains a strong voice in defense of our littlest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters, without boundary or exception, and of the truth about the marital union as it was constituted by God at the Creation. The Christian voice, the voice of Christ, transmitted by the Apostles, remains strong in our world. The voice of men and women of good will, who recognize and obey the law of God written upon their hearts, remains strong in our world.

Living in a totally secularized culture, we must open our eyes to see that many recognize the human bankruptcy of our culture and are looking with hope to the Church for the inspiration and strength to claim anew the God-fearing and Christian foundations of every human society. God has created us to choose life; God the Son Incarnate has won the victory of life for us, the victory over sin and everlasting death (cf. Dt 30:19; Jn 10:10).

We, therefore, must never give up in the struggle to advance a culture founded on the choice of life, which God has written upon our hearts, and the victory of life, which Christ has won in our human nature. In fact, we witness every day the commitment of God-fearing brothers and sisters who advance the cause of life and the family in their homes, in their local communities, in their homelands, and in the world.

A second fundamental presupposition of my presentation is the essential relationship of the respect for human life and the respect for the integrity of marriage and the family. The attack on the innocent and defenseless life of the unborn has its origin in an erroneous view of human sexuality, which attempts to eliminate, by mechanical or chemical means, the essentially procreative nature of the conjugal act. The error maintains that the artificially altered conjugal act retains its integrity. The claim is that the act remains unitive or loving, even though the procreative nature of the act has been radically violated. In fact, it is not unitive, for one or both of the partners withholds an essential part of the gift of self, which is the essence of the conjugal union.

The so-called "contraceptive mentality" is essentially anti-life. Many forms of so-called contraception are, in fact, abortifacient, that is, they destroy, at its beginning, a life which has already been conceived.

The manipulation of the conjugal act, as the Servant of God Pope Paul VI prophetically observed, has led to many forms of violence to marriage and family life (cf. Pope Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae, "On the Proper Regulation of the Propagation of Offspring," 25 July 1968, no. 17). Through the spread of the contraceptive mentality, especially among the young, human sexuality is no longer seen as the gift of God, which draws a man and a woman together, in a bond of lifelong and faithful love, crowned by the gift of new human life, but, rather, as a tool for personal gratification. Once sexual union is no longer seen to be, by its very nature, procreative, human sexuality is abused in ways that are profoundly harmful and indeed destructive of individuals and of society itself. One has only to think of the devastation which is daily wrought in our world by the multi-million dollar industry of pornography. Essential to the advancement of the culture of life is the proclamation of the truth about the conjugal union, in its fullness, and the correction of the contraceptive thinking which fears life,
which fears procreation.

It is instructive to note that Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical Letter on the Church"s social doctrine, makes special reference to Pope Paul VI"s Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae, underscoring its importance "for delineating the fully human meaning of the development that the Church proposes" (Caritas in veritate, no. 15). Pope Benedict XVI makes clear that the teaching in Humanae vitae was not simply a matter of "individual morality," declaring: "Humanae vitae indicates the strong links between life ethics and social ethics, ushering in a new area of magisterial teaching that has gradually been articulated in a series of documents, most recently John Paul II"s Encyclical Evangelium vitae (Caritas in veritate, no. 15)."

His Holiness reminds us of the essential part which a right understanding of our sexuality has in true human development.

In treating the whole question of procreation, he underscores the critical nature of the right understanding of human sexuality, marriage and the family. He declares: "The Church, in her concern for man"s authentic development, urges him to have full respect for human values in the exercise of his sexuality. It cannot be reduced merely to pleasure or entertainment, nor can sex education be reduced to technical instruction aimed solely at protecting the interested parties from possible disease or the "risk" of procreation. This would be to impoverish and disregard the deeper meaning of sexuality, a meaning which needs to be acknowledged and responsibly appropriated not only by individuals but also by the community (Caritas in veritate, no. 44).

The respect for the integrity of the conjugal act is essential to the advancement of the culture of life. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, it is necessary "once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person” (Caritas in veritate, no. 44).

Correspondingly, he notes that "States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society, and
to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character” (Caritas in veritate, no. 44).

The Magisterium and the Promotion of the Culture of Life

The relationship of the Magisterium to our eternal salvation lies at the very foundation of our life in
Christ. In a world which prizes, above all else, individualism and self-determination, the Christian is easily tempted to view the Magisterium in relationship to his individualism and self-pursuit. In other words, he is tempted to relativize the authority of the Magisterium. The phenomenon today is popularly known as “cafeteria Catholicism.”

The service of the Bishop, as true shepherd of the flock, is essential, indeed irreplaceable. The Venerable

Pope John Paul II, in his Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores gregis, “On the Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World,” promulgated on October 16, 2003, the 25th anniversary of his election to the See of Saint Peter, recalled the Rite of Ordination of a Bishop and, specifically, the imposition of the Book of the Gospels “on the head of the Bishop-elect,” during the Prayer of Consecration, which contains the form of the Sacrament, observing:

"This gesture indicates, on the one hand, that the Word embraces and watches over the Bishop’sministry and, on the other, that the Bishop’s life is to be completely submitted to the Word of God in his daily commitment of preaching the Gospel in all patience and sound doctrine (cf. 2 Tim. 4)
(Pope John Paul II, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores gregis, “On the Bishop, Servant
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World,” 16 October 2003, n. 28).

A bit earlier in the Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, he stressed that “the proclamation of Christ always takes first place and that the Bishop is the first preacher of the Gospel by his words and by the witness of his life.” He then reminded Bishops to “be aware of the challenges of the present hour and have the courage to face them” (n. 26).

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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