Pope Francis held a solemn but easy ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica this afternoon by which he created 20 recent cardinals. Sixteen of those that received the red hat are electors—including one American, Robert W. McElroy of San Diego, Calif.—meaning they may have the fitting to vote within the conclave to elect his successor. The opposite 4 are over the age of 80 and so do not need a right to vote in a conclave.
By this act Pope Francis has brought the whole variety of electors to 132, from 69 countries. That number, nonetheless, will step by step decrease over the approaching 12 months as electors reach the age of 80 and lose the fitting to vote. By Sept. 17, 2023, it would have been reduced to 120.
Francis has created 83 of the current 132 electors, which amounts to 63 percent of them. The Vatican statistics show that 53 of the 132 electors are from Europe, 38 are from the Americas (north and south), 21 from Asia, Africa 17 and three from Oceania. Today’s ceremony signifies that College of Cardinals now has a complete of 226 members from 90 countries, 94 of whom cannot vote in a conclave.
These statistics reveal that Pope Francis has significantly modified the composition of the electoral college because the last conclave in 2013. He has internationalized its membership through a discount within the variety of European and Italian cardinals and a big increase within the variety of cardinals from Asia, Africa and Latin America, by making cardinals from countries that never had a cardinal before. In his eighth consistory, Francis has given the red hat for the primary time ever to prelates from Mongolia, Paraguay, Singapore and Timor Leste. He also gave the red hat to the primary ever cardinal from Amazonia, and a primary cardinal from the Dalits (the untouchables) in India, who make up 64 percent of the country’s 19 million Catholic population.
Initially of today’s ceremony, the 20 recent cardinals processed into the crowded basilica, wearing for the primary time the scarlet robes which might be the distinctive ceremonial dress of a cardinal and a white surplice.
There was an air of pleasure among the many 180 cardinals present who’re already members of the College of Cardinals (the whole number before today was 206, but some couldn’t come), and the hundreds of faithful within the basilica that had come from countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas to take part in this historic event, amongst them government delegations and relatives of the brand new cardinals. Cardinal McElroy’s brother and sister, for instance, along with lots of his friends from the San Diego diocese and from across the US were present within the basilica. Nonetheless, his 97-year-old mother followed the ceremony on television back in California, the cardinal told America. Cardinal McElroy is the fifth American cardinal created by Pope Francis, bringing the whole variety of American electors to 10.
As Pope Francis entered the basilica, the schola sang “Tu Es Petrus” (“You’re Peter”). After taking his place in front of the confessional (below the high altar), he opened the ceremony by making the sign of the cross. Then the English-born archbishop Arthur Roche, the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and the primary named on the list of recent cardinals, addressed the pope in Italian, on behalf of the brand new cardinals, thanking him for conferring this honor on them.
Addressing the pope, Archbishop Roche said, “As diocesan and non secular priests, we’re on the service of preaching the Gospel in many various ways and in numerous cultures, but all the time united within the one faith and the one Church. Now, in manifesting your trust in us, you call us to this recent service, in a fair closer collaboration along with your ministry, throughout the broad horizon of the universal Church.”
He has internationalized the faculty of cardinals through a discount within the variety of European and Italian cardinals and a big increase within the variety of cardinals from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
He concluded his expression of due to the pope saying, “Our mission today is to show you how to carry the cross and never to extend its weight. With great joy we want to walk at your side knowing that to you’ve gotten been entrusted the keys of the Kingdom.”
Next, a deacon read a passage from the Gospel in response to St. Luke (12:49-50) that said, “I actually have come to bring fire on the earth, and the way I wish it were blazing already.” Pope Francis then gave a homily commenting on that text and told the brand new cardinals: “With those words present in the Gospel of Luke, the Lord calls us over again to follow him along the trail of his mission. A fiery mission–like that of Elijah–not just for what he got here to perform but additionally for a way he achieved it. And to us who within the church have been chosen from among the many people for a ministry of particular service, it’s as if Jesus is handing us a lighted torch and telling us: “Take this; because the Father has sent me so I now send you” (Jn 20:21).”
“In this manner”, he said, “the Lord desires to bestow on us his own apostolic courage, his zeal for the salvation of each human being, without exception. He desires to share with us his magnanimity, his boundless and unconditional love, for his heart is afire with the mercy of the Father.”
Pope Francis said, “This is similar powerful fire that impelled the Apostle Paul in his tireless service to the Gospel, in his “race”, his missionary zeal consistently inspired by the Spirit and by the Word. It’s the fireplace, too, of all those men and girls missionaries who’ve come to know the exhausting yet sweet joy of evangelizing, and whose lives themselves became a gospel, for they were before all else witnesses. This, brothers and sisters, is the fireplace that Jesus got here to “bring to the earth”, a hearth that the Holy Spirit kindles within the hearts, hands and feet of all those that follow him.”
Addressing his “dear brother Cardinals,” he said, “A Cardinal loves the church, all the time with that very same spiritual fire, whether coping with great questions or handling on a regular basis problems, with the powerful of this world or those strange people who find themselves great in God’s eyes.”
He recalled the instance of Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the famous Vatican diplomat who he said was “rightly famous for his openness to promoting, through farsighted dialogue the brand new prospects that opened up in Europe following the Cold War” and he remarked alluding to the current conflict in Ukraine “may God prevent human shortsightedness from closing anew those prospects that he opened!”
He recalled, nonetheless, that “In God’s eyes, nonetheless, the visits that he often made to the young inmates in a juvenile prison of Rome, where he was known simply as “Don Agostino”, were just as vital.”
He also recalled the instance of the Vietnamese Cardinal Van Thuân who was “called to shepherd the People of God in one other crucial scenario of the twentieth century, who was led by the fireplace of his love for Christ to take care of the soul of the prison guards who watched over him on the door of his prison cell.”
Addressing the entire congregation, Pope Francis said, “Dear brothers and sisters, allow us to over again contemplate Jesus. He alone knows the key of this lowly grandeur, this unassuming power, this universal vision ever attentive to particulars. The key of the fireplace of God, which descends from heaven, brightening the sky from one end to the opposite, and slowly cooking the food of poor families, migrant and homeless individuals. Today too, Jesus desires to bring this fireplace to the earth. He desires to light it anew on the shores of our each day lives. Jesus calls us by name; he looks us in the attention and he asks each of you cardinals: Can I count on you?”
Jesus calls us by name; he looks us in the attention and he asks each of you cardinals: “Can I count on you?”
He concluded his homily by asking the cardinals to wish for certainly one of the brand new cardinals–Richard Baawobr from Ghana, former superior general of the Missionaries of Africa (the White Fathers) who got here to Rome to receive the red hat but ended up within the hospital some days ago. He’ll receive the red hat at a later date.
After the homily, Pope Francis read the act by which he created the brand new cardinals.
He said this act of his papal ministry by which he calls a few of “our brothers” to develop into members of the College of Cardinals concerns not only “the church of Rome” but additionally all the church community worldwide, “because they can be united to the See of Peter with a better bond, develop into members of the clergy of Rome, and cooperate more intensely with our apostolic service.”
He told them that “having been invested with the sacred purple, they’re to be fearless witnesses to Christ and his Gospel in the town of Rome and in faraway regions.” He then proclaimed them to be cardinals and invited them to recite “the occupation of religion within the Triune God” and “the oath of fidelity to the holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.”
After that, he invested each of them with insignia of office: a red biretta, a hoop and the title to a church within the diocese of Rome.
As he gave the biretta to every cardinal, he said, “receive the scarlet biretta as an indication of the dignity of the cardinalate, signifying your readiness to act with courage, even to the shedding of your blood, for the rise of the Christian faith, for the peace and tranquility of the People of God, and for the liberty and growth of the Holy Roman Church.”
As he gave each recent cardinal their ring he reminded him that “your love for the church is strengthened by the love of the Prince of the Apostles.” Finally, he gave every one a scroll (document) containing a title to a church within the Rome diocese, and gave each the kiss of peace.
Pope Francis then led all of them in singing the Our Father in Latin.
Then the pope presided over the consistory—that’s the assembly of cardinals called by him—for the aim of approving the canonization of recent saints.
After the ceremony in St. Peter’s, Pope Francis took the 20 recent cardinals to go to Benedict XVI, the emeritus pope, on the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, behind St Peter’s Basilica, where he lives. There they received his blessing, along with that of Pope Francis and, after praying together the Salve Regina, the brand new cardinals returned either to the apostolic palace or to the Paul VI audience hall where, following tradition, they received courtesy visits from friends and well-wishers.
The 20 prelates who received their red hats from the pope were Cardinals:
— Arthur Roche, 72, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
— Lazarus You Heung-sik, 70, prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy.
— Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, 77, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Governor’s Office for Vatican City State.
— Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France, 63.
— Peter Ebere Okpaleke of Ekwulobia, Nigeria, 59.
— Leonardo Ulrich Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, 71.
— Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão of Goa, India, 69.
— Robert W. McElroy of San Diego, 68.
— Virgílio do Carmo da Silva of Dili, East Timor, 54.
— Oscar Cantoni of Como, Italy, 71.
— Anthony Poola of Hyderabad, India, 60.
— Paulo Cezar Costa of Brasília, Brazil, 54.
— Richard Kuuia Baawobr of Wa, Ghana, 62.
— William Goh Seng Chye of Singapore, 64.
— Adalberto Martínez Flores of Asunción, Paraguay, 70.
— Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 48.
— Jorge Jiménez Carvajal of Cartagena, Colombia, 80.
— Archbishop Arrigo Miglio of Cagliari, Italy, 80.
— Gianfranco Ghirlanda, professor of canon law, 80.
— Fortunato Frezza, canon of St. Peter’s Basilica, 80.
Updated, Aug. 27, 6:47 p.m. This text includes content from Catholic News Service.