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Vatican Metropolis, Vatican – Pope Francis on Saturday elevated 21 clergymen from distant corners of the world to the rank of cardinal, saying range was indispensable to the way forward for the Catholic Church.
Beneath sunny skies and with a crowd that crammed half of Vatican Metropolis’s grandiose, colonnaded St Peter’s Sq., the 86-year-old pope welcomed the brand new “Princes of the Church” — certainly one of whom may in the future grow to be the successor to the present pontiff.
“The Faculty of Cardinals is known as to resemble a symphony orchestra, representing the concord and synodality of the Church,” mentioned Francis, seated beneath a cover earlier than the gathered cardinals on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica.
Variety indicators church priorities
“Variety is critical; it’s indispensable. Nonetheless, every sound should contribute to the widespread design,” mentioned the Argentine Jesuit.
The selection of the brand new cardinals, who embrace diplomats, shut advisers and directors, is carefully watched as a sign of the priorities and place of the Church.
Certainly one of them may additionally in the future be elected by his friends to succeed Francis, who has left the door open to stepping down sooner or later ought to his well being warrant it. In June, the Pope had his second belly surgical procedure in simply two years was accomplished “with out issues.” His well being issues have fueled rumors that the Pope may resign.
Saturday’s ceremony, often known as a consistory, is the ninth since Francis in 2013 was named head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.
One after the other, the scarlet-clad cardinals knelt earlier than the pope, who bestowed on them the 2 symbols of their excessive workplace: a scarlet four-cornered cap often known as a biretta, and a cardinal’s ring.
To some, a grinning Francis uttered an encouraging “Bravo!” or “Braveness!” as he shook their hand.
Throughout his papacy, Francis has sought to create a extra inclusive, common Church, wanting previous Europe to clergy in Africa, Asia and Latin America to fill the Church’s highest ranks.
Eighteen of the 21 newly made cardinals are beneath the age of 80 and thus presently eligible to vote as “cardinal electors” within the subsequent conclave, when Francis’ successor will likely be determined.
They’re amongst 99 cardinal-electors created by Francis, representing about three-quarters of the full.
That has given rise to hypothesis that the Church’s future religious chief will likely be just like Francis, preaching a extra tolerant Church with a better deal with the poor and marginalized.
A rising Catholicism
Together with his newest roster of cardinals, Francis has once more regarded to the world’s “peripheries” — the place Catholicism is rising — whereas breaking with the apply of selling archbishops of huge, highly effective dioceses.
The array of cardinals symbolize “a richness and a wide range of expertise, and that is what the Church is all about,” the Archbishop of Cape City, Stephen Brislin, advised AFP Thursday. “The Church encompasses all folks, not only a sure group of individuals,” he mentioned.
There are three new cardinals from South America, together with two Argentinians, and three from Africa, with the promotion of the archbishops of Juba in South Sudan, Tabora in Tanzania, and Brislin from Cape City.
Asia is represented by the Bishop of Penang in Malaysia and the Bishop of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow, who’s seen as enjoying a key position in looking for to enhance tense relations between the Vatican and Beijing. Among the new cardinals, like Chow, have expertise in delicate zones of the world the place the Holy See hopes to play an vital diplomatic position.
The checklist consists of the Holy Land’s high Catholic authority, Italian Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the primary seated Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to be made cardinal.
“Jerusalem is a small laboratory, interreligious and intercultural, and that is a problem that the entire world is going through at this level,” Pizzaballa advised AFP.
Additionally to be promoted is the apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, to the US, France’s Christophe Pierre, whose decades-long diplomatic profession consists of posts in nations together with Haiti, Uganda and Mexico.
High directors within the Curia, the Holy See’s authorities, are additionally being acknowledged. There may be Italy’s Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Jap Church buildings; Argentina’s Victor Manuel Fernandez, whom the pope lately named head of the highly effective Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Religion; and Chicago-born Robert Prevost, a former missionary in Peru who leads the Dicastery for Bishops.
The final consistory was held in August 2022.
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