Luxembourg in an international sea of red hats

A joyful photograph reflecting the historical changes at the top of the Archdiocese of Luxembourg. Last week, Bishop Leo Wagener (left), became the archdiocese’s first auxiliary bishop, and yesterday Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich (right) was created the first cardinal in the country’s history.

Cardinal Hollerich, who also leads the Commision of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), consecrated Bishop Wagener on 29th September. The latter’s appointment is undoubtedly related to Cardinal Hollerich’s European duties, while the red hat is at least in part a sign of support for the Catholic community in the small grand duchy. The developments of the last week were certainly momentous.

As of yesterday, each country in the Benelux has its own resident cardinal: Willem Eijk of Utrecht, Jozef De Kesel of Mechelen-Brussels and now Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg. The latter two were created by Pope Francis, while Cardinal Eijk’s red hat was given to him by Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Hollerich was one of 13 cardinals created yesterday. The College of Cardinals now has 225 members, of which 128 are under the age of 80 and will thus have duties in Rome and can take part in a conclave for the election of a new pope. The newest cardinals, with their title churches, are:

1. Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, Cardinal-Deacon of San Girolamo dela Carità
2. José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Domenico e Sisto
3. Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, Cardinal-Priest of Spirito Santo alla Ferratella
4. Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, Cardinal-Priest of Santi Aquila e Priscilla
5. Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Cardinal-Priest of San Gabriele Arcangelo all’Acqua Traversa
6. Jean-Claude Hollerich, Cardinal-Priest of San Giovanni Crisostomo a Monte Sacro Alto
7. Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri, Cardinal-Priest of San Giovanni Evangelista a Spinaceto
8. Matteo Maria Zuppi, Cardinal-Priest of Sant’Egidio
9. Cristóbal López Romero, Cardinal-Priest of San Leone I
10. Michael Czerny, Cardinal-Deacon of San Michele Arcangelo
11. Michael Louis Fitzgerald, Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria In Portico
12. Sigitas Tamkevicius, Cardinal-Priest of Sant’Angela Merici
13. Eugenio Dal Corso, Cardinal-Priest of Sant’Anastasia

In the past there has been no hesitation to create new cardinal titles despite the availability of existing ones, but this time around only one new title church has been added: Sant’Egidio for Cardinal Zuppi. A sensible choice as the cardinal is a member of the movement with the same name. Other notable titles given are Sant’Anastasia for Cardinal Dal Corso – until this year the title of Cardinal Godfried Danneels – and Santi Aquila e Priscilla – Cardinal García Rodríguez is the archbishop of Havana, and the previous holder of the title church was his predecessor in the Cuban capital. Cardinal Hollerich’s title church was most recently held by Cardinal José Pimiento de Rodriguez, for a while the oldest cardinal in the world.

Considering Pope Francis’ habit of choosing cardinals from the peripheries, from countries with small Catholic communities or on the fringes of global affairs, the list of nationalities of cardinals has become a lenghty one. Most cardinals are the only ones from their country, while others have a fair number of countrymen in the College of Cardinals. Starting with the countries with the largest number of cardinals, the list is as follows:

• Italy: 42 cardinals
• Spain, United States: 14
• Brazil: 10
• Germany: 8
• France, Mexico, Poland: 6
• Portugal: 5
• Argentina, Canada, India: 4
• Chile, Nigeria, Philippines: 3
• Angola, Australia, Colombia, Congo-Kinshasa, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Vietnam: 2
• Albania, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sudan, Sweden, Tanzania, Tonga, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay: 1

So the Italian influence in the College of Cardinals is still great as is that of Europe in general, but this is balanced in the first place by the cardinals from North and South America, but also by the increasing number of far-flung countries from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Pope Francis aims to make the College of Cardinals, which not only elects his successor, but also works with him in the Roman Curia for the global church, to be a reflection of that world. With today’s consistory, he has taken another step in that direction.

Photo credit: Église catholique à Luxembourg – Kathoulesch Kierch zu Lëtzebuerg

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On the death of the world’s oldest cardinal, two days in a row

Over the past two days, the Church lost it’s oldest cardinal. Twice.

Tuesday saw the passing of Cardinal José de Jesús Pimiento Rodríguez. The 100-year-old Colombian prelate was the emeritus archbishop of Manizales and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015. In a telegram to the current archbishop of Manizales, Pope Francis recalled Cardinal Pimiento’s work for peace and the common good.

Upon Cardinal Pimiento’s death, the title of oldest cardinal fell to Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, only for him to pass on that title the next day. The 96-year-old French cardinal-bishop served as archbishop of Marseille before taking on duties in Rome, heading the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace and “Cor Unum”. Even after retiring he was an active advocate for peace in the world, as recalled by Pope Francis in a second telegram. Cardinal Etchegaray was created a cardinal in 1979 and appointed to the highest rank of cardinal-bishop in 1998, with the title of Porto-Santa Rufina.

The oldest living cardinal is now Albert Cardinal Vanhoye, also 96, but the late Cardinal Etchegaray’s junior by almost a year. Cardinal Vanhoye, a Jesuit like Pope Francis, was the rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. He was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

Although there are no centenarians in the College of Cardinals, no less than 23 cardinals are in their 90s. Clearly a job in which one has a fair chance of growing old.

Photo credit: [1] Cec.org.co, [2] Diocese de Bayonne

Topping up – new cardinals announced for October

Pope Francis yesterday surprisingly announced that he will create 13 new cardinals on 5 October. Surprisingly, because the numbers do not really suggest the ned for a consistory at this time. There are currently 118 electors, cardinals who are active in the Roman Curia and who can vote in a conclave to elect a new Pope, with only 8 aging out between now and the end of 2020. It is clear, however, that Pope Francis prefers having too many rather than too few cardinals, and so habitually ignores the rule that there can only be a maximum of 120 electors (he’s not the only Pope to have done so, however: Pope St. John Paul II once expanded their number to a massive 135).

And, as ever, he also aims for a representative College of Cardinals. In this round, he selects prelates from Luxembourg and Morocco, countries which have never had a cardinal before, but also more traditional cardinalatial sees such as Bologna, Havana and Kinshasa.

And again we see the fallout of recent papal visits abroad. Hence cardinals from Lithuania (visited in September of 2018) and Morocco (March 2019).

After 5 October, there will be 215 cardinals, with 128 electors. Two days later, the latter number will drop again, as Cardinal-designate Ambongo Besungu’s predecessor in Kinshasa, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, reaches the age of 80.

Below a list of the new cardinals:

• Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot (67, Spain)
  • President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Prefect of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims.
• José Tolentino Medonça (53, Portugal)
  • Librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library and Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives.
• Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo (69, Indonesia)
  • Metropolitan Archbishop of Jakarta, Military Ordinary of Indonesia and President of the Episcopal Conference of Indonesia
• Juan de la Caridad  Garciá Rodríguez (71, Cuba)
  • Metropolitan Archbishop of La Habana
• Fridolin Ambongo Besungu (59, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Metropolitan Archbishop of Kinshasa and Vice-President of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo
• Jean-Claude Hollerich (60, Luxembourg) (pictured above)
  • Archbishop of Luxembourg and President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community
• Alvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri (72, Guatemala)
  • Bishop of Huehuetenango
• Matteo Zuppi (63, Italy) (pictured at left giving a homily at the Church of the Frisians in Rome in 2015)
  • Metropolitan Archbishop of Bologna
• Cristóbal López Romero (67, Morocco)
  • Archbishop of Rabat
• Michael Czerny (73, Canada)
  • Undersecretary of the Migrant and Refugee Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
• Michael Louis Fitzgerald (82, United Kingdom)
  • Apostolic Nuncio emeritus to Egypt and Delegate emeritus to the League of Arab States
• Sigitas Tamkevicius (80, Lithuania)
  • Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Kaunas
• Eugenio Dal Corso (80, Angola)
  • Bishop emeritus of Benguela

Of these, cardinals-designate Fitzgerald, Tamkevicius and Dal Corso, being 80 or older, are ineligible to participate in a conclave. Their selection must therefore be seen as a recognition for their work for the Church and the people in their pastoral care.

Cardinal-designate Czerny is also the first elector who is not yet a bishop upon his selection. Priests who are not (yet) bishops can be made cardinals, but this usually only happens for non-electors. As a Jesuit, Msgr. Czerny will probably request dispensation to not be ordained as a bishop before his creation as cardinal. This is par of the course for Jesuits who are not yet made bishops for other reasons (such as Pope Francis, who was ordained a bishop in 1992 to serve as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires).

On the death of Cardinal Danneels

Although he had vanished from the spotlight in recent, Cardinal Danneels’ near-decade’s worth of retirement was one of the defining periods in his long years of service to the Church in Belgium and across the world. Retiring from the country’s premier see in 2010, Cardinal Danneels made way for a successor who in many ways was his opposite, although Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard shares the cardinal’s innate modesty and prayerful attitude to life. Following the election of Pope Francis in 2013, and Archbishop Léonard’s retirement in 2015, Cardinal Danneels returned to the world’s attention.

Identified by some as a kingmaker playing a pivotal role in the conclave of 2013 (one of two in which he participated), Cardinal Danneels was clearly a trusted cooperator of Pope Francis, who selected him as one of his personal choices to take part in both assembles of the Synod of Bishops on marriage and family in 2014 and 2015. And it is no secret that Cardinal Danneels himself was very happy that Francis became our pope.

But this has rather been an epilogue to a long life, of which more than 60 years were spent in service to the Church.

Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Cardinal-Priest of Santa Anastasia and archbishop emeritus of Mechelen-Brussel, died today at the age of 85. His health had been steadily declining over the past years, and the cardinal spent those years quietly at home in Mechelen, except for those times when Rome called…

Godfried Danneels was born in 1933 and was ordained in 1957 by Bishop Emiel-Jozef De Smedt of Bruges. Danneels spent his priesthood as a professo of liturgy and sacramentology in Bruges and Louvain. In 1977 he was appointed as bishop of Antwerp. He was consecrated by Cardinal Leo Suenens, the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel. A little over two years later, he left Antwerp to succeed Cardinal Suenens in Mechelen-Brussel. As Belgium’s only archbishop, Danneels was the metropolitan of the Church province. He also served as president of the Belgian Bishops’ Conference and vicar of the military vicariate of Belgium, which was promoted to an ordinariate in 1986. In 1983, Pope St. John Paul II created him a cardinal, with the basilica of Santa Anastasia as his title church. Cardinal Danneels served as cardinal in several dicasteries including the Congregation for Bishops, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

More to come.

Kerknet has an obituary in Dutch.

Photo credit: Belga

Cardinal no more – McCarrick goes back to purple

A historic development today in the fight against sexual abuse in the Church: a cardinal, albeit a retired one, resigned his title and red hat, and was ordered to cease all his public duties and lead a live of prayer and penance in a yet to be announced location.

Cardinal – now just Archbishop – Theodore McCarrick faces two allegations of sexual abuse of minors and several further claims of harassment of and misconduct with adults. The steps taken today come before his case is heard and judged in a canonical trial according to ecclesiastical law, and any legal developments which may take place  in an American court of law, as the law allows (the major obstacle in such cases, which – as here – often took place many years ago, remains the statute of limitations).

The case of McCarrick brings back strong memories of that of the late Scottish Cardinal O’Brien. He too saw all his cardinal rights and duties removed on his own request, but he was allowed to remain a cardinal. Former Cardinal McCarrick is punished more severely, although it is, in some ways, a passive punishment, as it was McCarrick himself who requested it in a  letter to the Pope.

The full resignation of a cardinal is a rare event, and this is the first time it has happened since 1927. In 2015, I wrote a blog post about the history of cardinal resignations, in which I gave an overview of past resignations of cardinals (although in it I erroneously claimed that the last such resignation took place in 1911 instead of 1927).

It remains to be seen if there will be a canonical trial for McCarrick, as today’s press release suggests, and if so, what its result will be. Perhaps there will be further penalties for Archbishop McCarrick. On Twitter,  Dr Kurt Martens, Professor of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America, offers a detailed analysis of the possible penalties that can be levied against McCarrick according to the laws of the Church. He suggests that dismissal from the clerical state is one of the few options remaining, as McCarrick is already retired and so no longer holds any office. Martens mentions two recent examples of prelates having been laicised after allegations of abuse: Raymond Lahey, former bishop of Antigonish in Canada in 2012, and Józef Wesolowski, former Apostolic Nuncio to the Dominican Republic (and thus automatically an archbishop)  in 2014.

Beyond McCarrick, there is a chance that there will be consequences for other bishops in the United States and Rome, as the question of who knew what and when about McCarrick’s abuse remains unanswered.

Theodore Edgar McCarrick was a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, and became auxiliary bishop of that archdiocese in 1977. In 1981, he was appointed as bishop of Metuchen in New Jersey, and then as archbishop of Newark in 1986. From 2011 to 2006 he served as archbishop of Washington. He was created a cardinal in the giant consistory of 21 February 2001 (making him a cardinal class mate of Pope Francis). He held the title of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo. The two allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, which were deemed credible and substantiated by the Archdiocese of New York in June, took place in the early 1970s and involved a then 16-year-old boy. McCarrick was then serving as a priest in New York, and today claims to have no memory of the alleged abuse. At the same time last month, the chanceries of the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen, where McCarrick served as bishop, announced that they had received three further allegations of misconduct involving adults, and that two of these allegations had resulted in settlements.

Photo credit: CNS photo/Bob Roller

Cardinal Tauran, interreligious dialogue chief and the man who presented Francis to the world, dies

His body may not have cooperated always, but it never stopped Jean-Louis Tauran from working ceaselessly, travelling the world in the name of cooperation and goodwill between the world’s religions. The 75-year-old prelate, who earlier this month became the highest ranking Catholic cardinal to meet with the Saudi king on his home turf, raising hopes that the Arab kingdom would become more open to other faiths in the future, died unexpectedly last night. He had recently been undergoing treatment for Parkinson’s disease in the United States.

To the world, Cardinal Tauran became best known in 2013 when he announced, With a shaky voice due to his condition, the election of Pope Francis from the balcony of St. Peter’s.

A priest of the French Archdiocese of Bordeaux, Cardinal Tauran entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1975, working in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Lebanon and Syria. He was called to Rome in 1989 as undersecretary for Relations with States in the Secretariat of State, being promoted to full secretary in 1990. In 2003 he was one of St. John Paul II’s last 30 cardinals to be created, and at the same time he was appointed as librarian and archivist. Since 2007 until his death he held the offices which characterised his final years: president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and prefect of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims. In 2011, Cardinal Tauran became the senior cardinal-deacon, which bestowed upon him the duty of announcing the name of a newly-elected pontiff, which he did in 2013. In 2014 he was elevated to the rank of cardinal-priests and in the same year Pope Francis chose him as his camerlengo, the prelate to manage the affairs of the Holy See upon the death of the pope. Cardinal Tauran was the Cardinal-Priest of Sant’Apollinare alle Terme Nerionane-Alessandrine.

Although Cardinal Tauran reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in April, there was no sign of it being accepted anytime soon. The new head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue needs to be an experienced diplomat, able to walk the tightrope between different systems of belief and morality without losing sight of his own roots. Whoever his successor will turn out to be, he will have large shoes to fill.

In the meantime, those who met him mourn a humble man of dialogue and truth and a tireless servant of the Gospel.

Photo credit: P.RAZZO/CIRIC

On red hat day, a small but historic change in the college

Today marks not only Pope Francis’ fifth red hat day, with the ceremonies to begin at 4 pm Roman time, but also an historical change in the composition of the College of Cardinals, albeit one with, on first glance, little effect on the day to day affairs of the Church.

The College of Cardinals is divided into three ranks: the cardinal-deacons, cardinal-priests and cardinal-bishops. Of these, the cardinal-bishops are of the highest rank and also the smallest of the three groups. Traditionally, the cardinal-bishops were the bishops of the seven* suburbicarian sees, the ancient dioceses surrounding Rome. Before 1962, these cardinals were the actual bishops of the suburbicarian sees, but in that year the position became titular and the dioceses received bishops who had the time to actual manage them.

The cardinal-bishops remained the highest order of cardinals, however, and from their ranks the dean and vice-dean of the entire College were chosen. In times of a sede vacante this becomes most visible, as the dean has the duty of calling the other cardinals to Rome and organising the conclave to elect a new pope. Today, the Dean of the College of Cardinals is the cardinal-bishop of Albano and Ostia, Cardinal Angelo Sodano**.

Maronite Patriarch Béchara Boutros Raï, an eastern cardinal-bishop

In 1965, the order of cardinal-bishops was expanded by the addition of those patriarchs of eastern Churches in union with Rome who were made cardinals. There are three of these today: the Coptic patriarch and the current and previous Maronite patriarchs. After today’s consistory, they will be joined by the Chaldean patriarch. These eastern cardinal-bishops, while equal in rank to the others, receive no suburbicarian see and do not participate in the election of dean and vice-dean (they are also unable to be elected themselves)***.

Over the centuries, but especially in the last decades, the College of Cardinals has continuously grown in size. For example, about a century ago, the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XV consisted of 57 cardinals (a further 8 were unable to take part), while following today’s consistory, there will be 125 electors. This growth took part solely in the ranks of the cardinal-deacons and the cardinal-priests. The cardinal-bishops steadfastly remained limited to the holders of the suburbicarian sees. To remedy that, Pope Francis decided to select four cardinals to be elevated to the rank of cardinal-bishops. They keep their current title churches and duties, but it may be assumed that they are now first in line to be moved to a suburbicarian see when one falls vacant. The four new cardinal-bishops are full members of the highest section of the hierarchy in all respects, and can vote for and be elected as dean or vice-dean. Canons 350 and 352 of the Code of Canon Law limit this to the holders of the suburbicarian sees, but that limitation has been waived for the new cardinal-bishops.

For this honour, which is simultaneously an obligation, Pope Francis has selected four cardinals from three different countries, who all work in the Curia in Rome.

1. Pietro Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State, 63. Perhaps the most important rising star in Francis’ papacy. A trained diplomat, the erstwhile Nuncio to Venezuela was called to Rome in 2013 to succeed Cardinal Bertone as Secretary of State. In 2014 he was made a cardinal with the title of Santi Simone e Giuda Taddeo a Torre Angela, and was added to the Council of Cardinals, the C9, that assists the pope in reforming the Curia, about a year after that group was established.
2. Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, 74. Argentinean like the pope, Cardinal Sandri is also a diplomat, having served as Nuncio to Venezuela and Mexico before joining the Secretariat of State as Substitute for General Affairs in 2000. He became Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in 2007 and was made a cardinal in that same year. Last month, he was one of the cardinal-deacons who were promoted to cardinal-priests. He maintained is title of Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari, as he does with his elevation to cardinal-bishop.
3. Marc Cardinal Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, 74. Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in 2001 and 2002, the Canadian prelate returned home as archbishop of Québec, and was made a cardinal in 2003, with Santa Maria in Traspontina as his title church. Since 2010 he serves as prefect of the congregation which controls the appointing of bishops around the world.
4. Fernando Cardinal Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, 72. Like two of his three classmates a diplomat, having served as Nuncio in Jordan, Iraq and the Philippines. Like Cardinal Sandri, he also served as Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State, from 2007 to 2011. In that latter year he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, and was made a cardinal in 2012. He holds the title of Nostra Signora do Coromoto in San Giovanni di Dio.

In paractice these changes mean that Cardinals Parolin, Sandri, Ouellet and Filoni are among the most significant collaborators of the pope, and when the time for a conclave comes, it will be Cardinal Parolin who will oversee the proceedings: he will take on those duties that Cardinal Sodano is unable to because of his age.

With these elevations and the creation of fourteen new cardinals today, the makeup of the entire College of Cardinals is listed below. In bold are those cardinals under the age of 80, who can vote in a conclave. Their duties and offices are summarised here. In many cases, especially for cardinals working in the curia, they have or had several functions. I have chosen to list only their most prominent or best-known roles.

Cardinal-Bishops

1. Angelo Cardinal Sodano: Dean of the College of Cardinals, Secretary of State emeritus
2. Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re: Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops
3. Roger Cardinal Etchegaray: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
4. Francis Cardinal Arinze: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
5. Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone: Secretary of State emeritus
6. José Cardinal Saraiva Martins: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
7. Pietro Cardinal Parolin: Secretary of State
8. Leonardo Cardinal Sandri: Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches
9. Marc Cardinal Ouellet: Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
10. Fernando Cardinal Filoni: Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples
11. Nasrallah Pierre Cardinal Sfeir: Patriarch emeritus of Antioch (Maronite Rite)
12. Antonios Cardinal Naguib: Patriarch emeritus of Alexandria (Coptic Rite)
13. Béchara Pierre Cardinal Raï: Patriarch of Antioch (Maronite Rite)
14. Louis Raphaël I Cardinal Sako: Patriarch of Babylon (Chaldean Rite)

Cardinal-Priests

1. Michael Michai Cardinal Kitbunchu: Archbishop emeritus of Bangkok
2. Alexandre Cardinal do Nascimento: Archbishop emeritus of Luanda
3. Godfried Cardinal Danneels: Archbishop emeritus of Mechelen-Brussel
4. Thomas Stafford Cardinal Williams: Archbishop emeritus of Wellington
5. Henryk Roman Cardinal Gulbinowicz: Archbishop emeritus of Wroclaw
6. Jozef Cardinal Tomko: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples
7. Paul Cardinal Poupard: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
8. Friedrich Cardinal Wetter: Archbishop emeritus of München und Freising
9. Adrianus Johannes Cardinal Simonis: Archbishop emeritus of Utrecht
10. Eduardo Cardinal Martínez Somalo: Prefect emeritus of the Consecration for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
11. Achille Cardinal Silvestrini: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches
12. José Freire Cardinal Falcão: Archbishop emeritus of Brasília
13. Alexandre José María Cardinal dos Santos: Archbishop emeritus of Maputo
14. Christian Wiyghan Cardinal Tumi: Archbishop emeritus of Douala
15. Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
16. Nicolás de Jesús Cardinal López Rodríguez: Archbishop emeritus of Santo Domingo
17. Roger Michael Cardinal Mahony: Archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles
18. Camillo Cardinal Ruini: Vicar General emeritus for the Vicariate of Rome, Archpriest emeritus of S. John Lateran
19. Henri Cardinal Schwery: Bishop emeritus of Sion
20. Jaime Lucas Cardinal Ortega y Alamino: Archbishop emeritus of Havana
21. Julius Riyadi Cardinal Darmaatmadja: Archbishop emeritus of Jakarta
22. Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala: Archbishop emeritus of Kampala
23. Adam Joseph Cardinal Maida: Archbishop emeritus of Detroit
24. Vinko Cardinal Puljic: Archbihsop of Vrhbosna
25. Juan Cardinal Sandoval Íñiguez: Archbihsop emeritus of Guadalajara
26. Jorge Arturo Cardinal Medina Estévez: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
27. James Francis Cardinal Stafford: Archbishop emeritus of Denver
28. Salvatore Cardinal De Giorgi: Archbishop emeritus of Palermo
29. Serafim Fernandes Cardinal de Araújo: Archbishop emeritus of Belo Horizonte
30. Antonio María Cardinal Rouco Varela: Archbishop emeritus of Madrid
31. Polycarp Cardinal Pengo: Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam
32. Christoph Cardinal Schönborn: Archbishop of Vienna
33. Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera: Archbishop emeritus of Mexico
34. Marian Cardinal Jaworski: Archbishop emeritus of Lviv
35. Janis Cardinal Pujats: Archbishop emeritus of Riga
36. Agostino Cardinal Cacciavillan: President emeritus of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See
37. Sergio Cardinal Sebastiani: President emeritus of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See
38. Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski: Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education
39. Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe: Archbishop of Naples
40. Walter Cardinal Kasper: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
41. Geraldo Majella Cardinal Agnelo: Archbishop emeritus of São Salvador de Bahia
42. Pedro Cardinal Rubiano Sáenz: Archbishop emeritus of Bogotá
43. Theodore Edgar Cardinal McCarrick: Archbishop emeritus of Washington
44. Audrys Juozas Cardinal Backis: Archbishop emeritus of Vilnius
45. Francisco Javier Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa: Archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile
46. Wilfrid Fox Cardinal Napier: Archbishop of Durban
47. Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga: Archbishop of Tegucigalpa and Coordinator of the Council of Cardinals
48. Juan Luis Cardinal Cipriani Thorne: Archbishop of Lima
49. Francisco Cardinal Álvarez Martínez: Archbishop emeritus of Toledo
50. Cláudio Cardinal Hummes: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Clergy
51. Severino Cardinal Poletto: Archbishop emeritus of Torino
52. Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran: President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church
53. Julián Cardinal Herranz Casado: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts
54. Javier Cardinal Lozano Barragán: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers
55. Angelo Cardinal Scola: Archbishop emeritus of Milan
56. Anthony Olubunmi Cardinal Okogie: Archbishop emeritus of Lagos
57. Gabriel Cardinal Zubier Wako: Archbishop emeritus of Khartoum
58. Carlos Cardinal Amigo Vallejo: Archbihsop emeritus of Sevilla
59. Justin Francis Cardinal Rigali: Archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia
60. Eusébio Oscar Cardinal Scheid: Archbishop emeritus of Rio de Janeiro
61. Ennio Cardinal Antonelli: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Family
62. Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson: Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
63. Telesphore Placidus Cardinal Toppo: Archbishop emeritus of Ranchi
64. George Cardinal Pell: Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy
65. Josip Cardinal Bozanic: Archbishop of Zagreb
66. Jean-Baptise Cardinal Pham Minh Man: Archbishop emeritus of Ho Chi Minh City
67. Philipp Christian Igance Marie Cardinal Barbarin: Archbishop of Lyon
68. Péter Cardinal Erdö: Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest
69. William Joseph Cardinal Levada: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
70. Franc Cardinal Rode: Prefect emeritus of the Consecration for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
71. Agostino Cardinal Vallini: Pontifical Legate for the Basilicas of St. Francis and St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi
72. Jorge Liberato Cardinal Urosa Savino: Archbishop of Caracas
73. Gaudencio Borbon Cardinal Rosales: Archbishop emeritus of Manila
74. Jean-Pierre Bernard Cardinal Ricard: Archbishop of Bordeaux
75. Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera: Archbishop of Valencia
76. Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Jin-suk: Archbishop emeritus of Seoul
77. Seán Patrick Cardinal O’Malley: Archbishop of Boston
78. Stanislaw Cardinal DziwiszArchbishop emeritus of Kraków
79. Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun: Bishop emeritus of Hong Kong
80. Albert Cardinal Vanhoye: Secretary emeritus of the Pontifical Biblical Commission
81. Giovanni Cardinal Lajolo: President emeritus of the Governorate of the Vatican City State and President emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State
82. Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”
83. Angelo Cardinal Comastri: Archpriest of St. Peter and Vicar General for the Vatican City State
84. Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko: Archpries of St. Mary Major
85. Raffaele Cardinal Farina: Librarian emeritus of the Vatican Apostolic Library and Archivist emeritus of the Vatican Secret Archives
86. Seán Baptist Cardinal Brady: Archbishop emeritus of Armagh
87. Lluís Cardinal Martinez Sistach: Archbishop emeritus of Barcelona
88. André Armand Cardinal Vingt-Trois: Archbishop emeritus of Paris
89. Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco: Archbishop of Genova
90. Théodore-Adrien Cardinal Sarr: Archbishop emeritus of Dakar
91. Oswald Cardinal Gracias: Archbishop of Bombay
92. Francisco Cardinal Robles Ortega: Archbishop of Guadalajara
93. Daniel Nicholas Cardinal DiNardo: Archbishop of Galveston-Houston
94. Odilo Pedro Cardinal Scherer: Archbishop of São Paulo
95. John Cardinal Njue: Archbishop of Nairobi
96. Estanislao Esteban Cardinal Karlic: Archbishop emeritus of Paraná
97. Raúl Eduardo Cardinal Vela Chiriboga: Archbishop emeritus of Quito
98. Laurent Cardinal Monsengwo Pasinya: Archbishop of Kinshasa
99. Paolo Cardinal Romeo: Archbishop emeritus of Palermo
100. Donald William Cardinal Wuerl: Archbishop of Washington
101. Raymundo Damasceno Cardinal Assis: Archbishop emeritus of Aparecida
102. Kazimierz Cardinal Nycz: Archbishop of Warszawa
103. Albert Malcolm Ranjith Cardinal Patabendige Don: Archbishop of Colombo
104. Reinhard Cardinal Marx: Archbishop of München und Freising
105. José Manuel Cardinal Estepa Llaurens: Military Ordinary emeritus of Spain
106. George Cardinal Alencherry: Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly (Syro-Malabar Rite)
107. Thomas Christopher Cardinal Collins: Archbishop of Toronto
108. Dominik Cardinal Duka: Archbishop of Prague
109. Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk: Archbishop of Utrecht
110. Giuseppe Cardinal Betori: Archbishop of Firenze
111. Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan: Archbishop of New York
112. Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki: Archbishop of Köln
113. John Cardinal Tong Hon: Bishop emeritus of Hong Kong
114. Lucian Cardinal Muresan: Major Archbishop of Fagaras si Alba Iulia (Romanian Rite)
115. Baselios Cleemis Cardinal Thottunkal: Major Archbishop of Trivandrum (Syro-Malankar Rite)
116. John Olorunfemi Cardinal Onaiyekan: Archbishop of Abuja
117. Jesús Rubén Cardinal Salazar Gómez: Archbishop of Bogotá
118. Luis Antonio Gokim Cardinal Tagle: Archbishop of Manila
119. Vincent Gerard Cardinal Nichols: Archbishop of Westminster
120. Leopoldo José Cardinal Brenes Solórzano: Archbishop of Managua
121. Gérald Cyprien Cardinal Lacroix: Archbishop of Québec
122. Jean-Pierre Cardinal Kutwa: Archbishop of Abidjan
123. Orani João Cardinal Tempesta: Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro
124. Gualtiero Cardinal Bassetti: Archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve
125. Mario Aurelio Cardinal Poli: Archbishop of Buenos Aires
126. Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung: Archbishop of Seoul
127. Ricardo Cardinal Ezzati Andrello: Archbishop of Santiago de Chile
128. Philippe Nakellentuba Cardinal Ouédraogo: Archbishop of Ouagadougou
129. Orlando Beltran Cardinal Quevedo: Archbishop of Cotabato
130. Chibly Cardinal Langlois: Bishop of Les Cayes
131. Fernando Cardinal Sebastián Aguilar: Archbishop emeritus of Pamplona y Tudela
132. Kelvin Edward Cardinal Felix: Archbishop emeritus of Castries
133. Manuel José Cardinal Macário do Nascimento Clemente: Patriarch of Lissabon
134. Berhaneyesus Demerew Cardinal Souraphiel: Metropolitan of Addis Abeba (Ethiopic Rite)
135. John Atcherley Cardinal Dew: Archbishop of Wellington
136. Edoardo Cardinal Menichelli: Archbishop emeritus of Ancona-Osimo
137. Pierre Cardinal Nguyen Van Nhon: Archbishop of Hanoi
138. Alberto Cardinal Suárez Inda: Archbishop emeritus of Morelia
139. Charles Maung Cardinal Bo: Archbishop of Yangon
140. Francis Xavier Kriengsak Cardinal Kovithavanij: Archbishop of Bangkok
141. Francesco Cardinal Montenegro: Archbishop of Agrigento
142. Daniel Fernando Cardinal Sturla Berhouet: Archbishop of Montevideo
143. Ricardo Cardinal Blázquez Pérez: Archbishop of Valladolid
144. José Luis Cardinal Lacunza Maestrojuán: Bishop of David
145. Arlindo Cardinal Gomes Furtado: Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde
146. Soane Patita Cardinal Mafi: Bishop of Tonga
147. José de Jesús Cardinal Pimiento Rodriguez: Archbishop emeritus of Manizales
148. Luis Héctor Cardinal Villalba: Archbishop emeritus of Tucumán
149. Júlio Duarte Cardinal Langa: Bishop emeritus of Xai-Xai
150. Dieudonné Cardinal Nzapalainga: Archbishop of Bangui
151. Carlos Cardinal Osoro Sierra: Archbishop of Madrid
152. Sérgio Cardinal da Rocha: Archbishop of Brasília
153. Blase Joseph Cardinal Cupich: Archbishop of Chicago
154. Patrick Cardinal D’Rozario: Archbishop of Dhaka
155. Baltazar Enrique Cardinal Porras Cardozo: Archbishop of Mérida
156. Jozef Cardinal De Kesel: Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel
157. Maurice Cardinal Piat: Bishop of Port-Louis
158. Carlos Cardinal Aguiar Retes: Archbishop of Mexico
159. John Cardinal Ribat: Archbishop of Port Moresby
160. Joseph William Cardinal Tobin: Archbishop of Newark
161. Anthony Soter Cardinal Fernandez: Archbishop emeritus of Kuala Lumpur
162. Renato Cardinal Corti: Bishop emeritus of Novara
163. Sebastian Koto Cardinal Khoarai: Bishop emeritus of Mohale’s Hoek
164. Jean Cardinal Zerbo: Archbishop of Bamako
165. Juan José Cardinal Omella Omella: Archbishop of Barcelona
166. Anders Cardinal Arborelius: Bishop of Stockholm
167. Lousi-Marie Cardinal Ling Mangkhanekhoun: Vicar Apostolic of Vientiane
168. Gregorio Cardinal Rosa Chávez: Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador
169. Joseph Cardinal Coutts: Archbishop of Karachi
170. António Augusto Cardinal dos Santos Marto: Bishop of Leiria-Fátima
171. Pedro Ricardo Cardinal Barreto Jimeno: Archbishop of Huancayo
172. Désiré Cardinal Tsarahazana: Archbishop of Toamasina
173. Giuseppe Cardinal Petrocchi: Archbishop of L’Aquila
174. Thomas Aquino Manyo Cardinal Maeda: Archbishop of Osaka
175. Sergio Cardinal Obeso Rivera: Archbishop emeritus of Jalapa
176. Toribio Cardinal Ticona Porco: Prelate emeritus of Corocoro

Cardinal-Deacons

1. Renato Cardinal Martino: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
2. Angelo Cardinal Amato: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
3. Robert Cardinal Sarah: Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
4. Francesco Cardinal Monterisi: Archpriest emeritus of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls
5. Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke: Patron of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta
6. Kurt Cardinal Koch: President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
7. Paolo Cardinal Sardi: Patron emeritus of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta
8. Mauro Cardinal Piacenza: Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary
9. Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi: President of the Pontifical Council for Culture
10. Elio Cardinal Sgreccia: President emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life
11. Walter Cardinal Brandmüller: President emeritus of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences
12. Manuel Cardinal Monteiro de Castro: Major Penitentiary emeritus of the Apostolic Penitentiary
13. Santos Cardinal Abril y Castelló: Archpriest emeritus of St. Mary Major
14. Antonio Maria Cardinal Vegliò: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
15. Giuseppe Cardinal Bertello: President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State and President of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State
16. Francesco Cardinal Coccopalmerio: President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts
17. João Cardinal Bráz de Aviz: Prefect of the Consecration for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
18. Edwin Frederick Cardinal O’Brien: Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepuclhre of Jerusalem
19. Domenico Cardinal Calcagno: President emeritus of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See
20. Giuseppe Cardinal Versaldi: Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education
21. Prosper Cardinal Grech: Priest of the Archdiocese of Malta
22. James Michael Cardinal Harvey: Archpriest of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls
23. Lorenzo Cardinal Baldisseri: Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops
24. Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller: Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
25. Beniamino Cardinal Stella: Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy
26. Dominique Francois Joseph Cardinal Mamberti: Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
27. Luigi Cardinal De Magistris: Major Pro-Penitentiary emeritus
28. Karl-Josef Cardinal Rauber: Apostolic Nuncio emeritus to Belgium and Luxembourg
29. Mario Cardinal Zenari: Apostolic Nuncio to Syria
30. Kevin Joseph Cardinal Farrell: Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life
31. Ernest Cardinal Simoni: Priest of the Diocese of Shkodrë-Pult
32. Luis Francisco Cardinal Ladaria Ferrer: Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
33. Angelo Cardinal De Donatis: Archpriest of St. John Lateran and Vicar General for the Vicariate of Rome
34. Giovanni Angelo Cardinal Becciu: Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
35. Konrad Cardinal Krajewski: Almoner of His Holiness
36. Aquilino Cardinal Bocos Merino: Superior General emeritus of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

*Over time, there have been some mergers and splits among these seven sees, but today they are: Albano, Frascati, Ostia, Palestrina, Porto-Santa Rufina, Sabina-Poggio Mirteto and Velletri-Segni.

*The title of Ostia is given to the Dean in addition to his own titular diocese. It has no bishop of its own and it is governed by the vicar-general for the Vicariate of Rome, currently Archbishop Angelo De Donatis, who himself will be made a cardinal today.

***This may be one of the reasons for today’s changes. If a conclave were to be held now, its proceedings would be overseen by Maronite Patriarch Béchara Cardinal Raï, himself not a Roman prelate. This would be so because the dean, at 90, is too old to participate in a conclave and his duties would then automatically fall to the senior cardinal-bishop who is also an elector. Cardinal Raï is the sole elector among the cardinal-bishops today.

Photo credit: [2] Alessia GIULIANI/CPP/CIRIC, [4] CNS/Paul Haring, [5] AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

 

A bishop at 80

As canon law dictates that a bishop is to offer his resignation when he reaches the age of 75, new bishops rarely get consecrated beyond the age of, say, 65. A look at the past month, just to get a sampling, shows that this is generally true: the youngest four of the most recently consecrated bishops were 51, while the oldest was 69. All the others fall in between those ages.

Today, however, will see the consecration of an 80-year-old bishop. But he is not set to lead a diocese or take on some important office in the curia or a diplomatic post somewhere. No, Archbishop Aquilino Bocos Merino is being made a bishop so that he can receive the cardinal’s red hat in 12 days’ time.

Canon 351 § 1 describes who can be chosen to be made cardinals, adding that “those who are not yet bishops must receive episcopal consecration.” Cardinal-elect Bocos Merino is a priest of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, generally known as the Claretians, and served as that order’s superior general from 1991 to 2003. That office, however, does not entail that the holder being made a bishop. But a cardinal must be one. Hence today’s consecration of an 80-year-old.

The consecration of Archbishop Bocos Merino will take place in Madrid, Spain, with Fernando Cardinal Sebastián Aguilar, archbishop emeritus of Pamplona y Tudela, as principal consecrator, and Carlos Cardinal Osoro Sierra, archbishop of Madrid, and Ricardo Cardinal Blázquez Pérez, archbishop of Valladolid, as co-consecrators. All three cardinals were also created by Pope Francis.

Archbishop Bocos Merino has been appointed the titular archbishop of Urusi (because a bishop has to be a bishop of a place), a title he will hold for a mere twelve days. In the consistory of 28 June he will be given a deaconry title to go with his cardinal’s red hat. There are currently twelve of these vacant, but Pope Francis may decide to elevate another Roman church to the dignity of cardinal deaconry. He has done so before.

But, despite all of the above, a newly chosen cardinal who is not yet a bishop can simply ask the pope to dispense him from the obligation of being made a bishop first. Such a request is usually granted. Most recently, Cardinal Ernest Simoni, created in the consistory of 19 November 2016, did so.

 

Class V – Classic Francis for the new cardinal intake

Every year a new class of cardinals, that seems to be the tradition under Pope Francis. For this year, he calls in fourteen new members of the College, eleven of whom are able to vote in a conclave to elect his successor. This would bring the total number of electors up to 126, were it not for the ageing out of Cardinal Angelo Amato three weeks before the consistory, scheduled for 29 June. Still, the number of electors will be 5 above the maximum number established by soon-to-be Saint Paul VI, but, as noted before, this is a flexible rule that popes are free to break. Barring any deaths, the maximum number of 120 cardinal electors will again be reached by 31 July 2019.

The 2018 class of cardinals, as said, consists of 14 members from 11 different countries, all of which have had cardinals before. This may make the list less exotic than previous editions, although some of the new cardinals come from dioceses or curial departments which have never had red hats before.

Three of the new cardinals work in the curia, while the rest comes from dioceses (and one religious order) across the world. Three come from Italy, two from Spain, and one each from Iraq, Poland, Pakistan, Portugal, Peru, Madagascar, Japan, Mexico and Bolivia.

The list:

Louis Raphael I Cardinal Sako, Cardinal-Bishop, Patriach of Babylon (Chaldean), Iraq. The second Patriarch of Babylon to be made a cardinal, and also the second Iraqi prelate. 69-year-old Patriarch Sako was appointed to Babylon and the leadership of the Chaldean Church in 2013. Before that he was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kirkuk. As an eastern Patriarch, Cardinal Sako will automatically be a cardinal-bishop, but as a member of a non-Roman Catholic Church, albeit one in union with Rome, he will not be given a title church.

Luis Francisco Cardinal Ferrer, Cardinal-Deacon, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ever since the popes ceased to head the chief office in the curia themselves, its prefects have been made cardinals. 74-year-old Spanish Jesuit Ladaria Ferrer, formerly the second in command under Cardinal Müller, receives the red hat a year after being made prefect.

Angelo Cardinal de Donatis, Cardinal-Priest, Vicar General of Rome. Another almost automatic red hat, even under Pope Francis, goes to the vicar general for the vicariate of Rome. The 64-year-old is the second cardinal in the Roman archdiocese, joining Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the vicar general for Vatican City.

 

Giovanni Angelo Cardinal Becciu, Cardinal-Deacon, Substitute of the Secretariat of State. All of Cardinal-elect Becciu’s predecessors have been made cardinals, but none while serving as subsistutes in the Secretariat of State. The general expectation is that the 69-year-old Italian will also leave that office soon: he may well suceed Cardinal Angelo Amato, who will turn 80 in June, at the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Konrad Cardinal Krajewski, Cardinal-Deacon, Almoner of the Office of Papal Charities. Without doubt the highest-regarded curial official in Francis’ Rome, the 54-year-old Polish almoner runs the charitable initiatives on behalf of the pope in Rome. Under his responsibility, showers and barber facilities for homeless have been installed in the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square, to name but one example. Cardinal-elect Krajewski is the first papal almoner to be made a cardinal.

Joseph Cardinal Coutts, Cardinal-Priest, Archbishop of Karachi, Pakistan. The second Pakistani cardinal, and the first native of that country to receive the red hat, ever. Cardinal-elect Coutts, 72,  has been in the country’s southern metropolis since 2012, following stints in the dioceses of Hyderabad and Faisalabad. His election must be seen in the first place as a sign of support for the small Catholic presence in a largely Muslim country.

António Augusto Cardinal dos Santos Marto, Cardinal-Priest, Bishop of Leiria-Fátima, Portugal. It is not the first time that Francis creates a cardinal in a country he has previously visited. The bishop of the diocese which includes the major Marian shrine of Portugal and beyond hosted the pope in May of 2017. The 71-year cardinal-elect also serves as vice-president of the Portuguese bishops’ conference and becomes that country’s second cardinal.

Pedro Ricardo Cardinal Barreto Jimeno, Cardinal-Priest, Archbishop of Huancayo, Peru. In January of this year, Pope Francis visited Peru, so that country also gets a cardinal. The 74-year-old archbishop of Huancayo joins the archbishop of the nation’s capital and is, like him, close to retirement. The cardinal-elect is the second Jesuit to be named in the current batch.

Désiré Cardinal Tsarahazana, Cardinal-Priest, Archbishop of Toamasina, Madagascar. After eight years, Madagascar gets a cardinal again, although he is not the archbishop of the capital, Antananarivo. Instead, tnhe 63-year-old cardinal-designate comes from the coastal see of Toamasina. He is the first archbishop of that see, after is was raised to that status in 2010, and he also serves as president of the Malagassy bishops’ conference.

Giuseppe Cardinal Petrocchi, Cardinal-Priest, Archbishop of L’Aquila, Italy. In Italy’s mountaineous and earthquake-stricken region of L’Aquila since 2013, the 69-year-old cardinal-elect has been unavoidably involved with missions of charity and works of mercy. The first cardinal from that see, the appointment once more overlooks such ‘autmoatic’ cardinalatial sees like Venice, Turin and Milan.

Thomas Aquino Manyo Cardinal Maeda, Cardinal-Priest, Archbishop of Osaka, Japan. Japan was long overdue for a cardinal, and this appointment as not as unique as may be expected. Previous Japanese cardinals came from Tokyo twice, but also one time each from Nagasaki and Osaka. The appointment of the 69-year-old archbishop, who has been in office since 2014, is once more a sign of support for a small Asian Catholic congregation.

Sergio Cardinal Obeso Rivera, Cardinal-Priest, Archbishop emeritus of Jalapa, Mexico. There’s always a Mexican among Francis’ appointments, it seems, but this time the choice has fallen on an archbishop who has retired since 2007. The 86-year-old’s election is one of honour, then, perhaps in part because of his two presidencies of the Mexican bishops’ conference.

Toribio Cardinal Ticona Porco, Cardinal-Priest, Prelate emeritus of Corocoro, Bolivia. The 81-year-old retired prelate of a small mountain mining town could be said to have truly served on the fringes of the Catholic Church. The economy in the area has been stagnant since 1985, and the new cardinal has worked here for 20 years. He is the third Bolivian cardinal and the first not to come from one of the nation’s two capitals.

Aquilino Cardinal Bocos Merino, Cardinal-Deacon, Superior General emeritus of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope Francis places great value and emphasis on religious life, so in that sense it is odd that he names only three religious cardinals this time around. Perhaps he tries to balance that with the appointment of the 80-year-old Spanish Claretian who headed his order from 1991 to 2003. The order has produced four other cardinals, two of whom are still alive. It is f

By the time of the consistory, Pope Francis will have created almost half of the electors, or active members of the College of Cardinals. He will have created 59 of them, while 47 will have been created by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and a further 19 by Pope Saint John Paul II.

With the new consistory, Italy remains over-represented in the College, with 22 electors. It is followed by the United States with 10, Spain, France and Pland with 5, and Mexico, Brazil and India with 4 electors each. All other countries are represented by 2 or less cardinal electors.

Other changes

Before yesterdays’ announcement of the upcoming consistory, another change took place in the College of Cardinals, albeit an expected one. Ten years after being created, a cardinal-deacon can opt to be elevated to the next rank of cardinal-priest. This changes nothing in their hands, but only in their precedence among the other cardinals and thus their duties at a conclave to elect a new pope.

All six cardinal-deacons who were created by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 accepted this change and became cardinal-priests, thus joining the other 11 surviving cardinal of their consistory, rising in precedence from after the most recently-created cardinal-priests of Pope Francis, to roughly the middle section of the cardinal-priests.

These six cardinals, who all kept their title churches pro hac vice (“for this time”, ie. for the duration of their being cardinals, which is usually until death) are:

• Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Oriental Institute
• Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”
• Angelo Cardinal Comastri, President of the Fabric of St. Peter, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and Vicar General for the Vatican City State
• Raffaele Cardinal Farina, Archivist emeritus of the Vatican Secret Archives, Librarian emeritus of the Vatican Apostolic Library and President emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion
• Giovanni Cardinal Lajolo, President emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State
• Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major

Looking ahead at a new year

Midway through the last month of the year, it is a good time to look ahead to the new year. 2018 will undoubtedly feature its share of Catholic news, developments and, not least, opinions in social media. Every year since the launch of this blog has had had more than a few surprises, so a look at the future can’t be anything but incomplete, but there are a few things which we know will happen.

The retirement and appointment of bishops is pretty easy to predict, as bishops are legally bound to offer their resignation when they reach the age of 75. Locally, there are currently three dioceses without a bishop: Roermond in the Netherlands, and Hildesheim and Würzburg in Germany. In 2018, two more will likely join these: in Fulda, Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen (at right) will celebrate his 75th on 15 February, and in Namur, Bishop Remy Vancottem will do likewise on 25 July. A third likely diocese to fall vacant in Ghent. Bishop Luc van Looy will turn 77 on 28 September. Upon his 75th birthday, the diocese made it known that Pope Francis had requested the bishop stay on for two more years, and that extension is up this year.

Other predictable events include the 80th birthdays of cardinals, the age at which they cease their duties in the Roman Curia and are no longer able to participate in a conclave. In 2018, six cardinals will mark this milestone:

• Antonio Maria Cardinal Vegliò on 3 February
• Paolo Cardinal Romeo on 20 February
• Francesco Cardinal Coccopalmerio on 6 March
• Manuel Cardinal Monteiro de Castro on 29 March
• Pierre Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Nhơn on 1 April
• Angelo Cardinal Amato on 8 June

While all hold memberships in various dicasteries in the curia, two of these sit at the head of them: Cardinal Coccopalmerio is president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and Cardinal Amato (at left) is the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Cardinal Nguyễn Văn Nhơn remains active as archbishop of Hanoi. All will undoubtedly retire upon their 80th birthday, opening up some interesting positions in the curia. Barring any deaths, the number of cardinal electors will stand at 114 by mid-2018. Possibly not low enough for a new consistory by itself, but considering the fact that a further 10 ill age out in 2019, Pope Francis may decide to be proactive and call a consistory in autumn for the creation of anywhere between 6 and 16 new cardinals.

Speaking about the pope, he will, despite the fact that he has no love for travelling, visit several countries in 2018. In January, he will once again return to South America, visiting Peru and Chile. Ireland is on the schedule in August, when the Holy Father will attend the World Meeting of Families taking place in Dublin (logo at right). Visits not yet confirmed are to the Baltic countries in September and to Romania in December. A visit to India also remains an option, but as Pope Francis has just wrapped a visit to India’s neighbouring countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh, it may not be at the top of the list.

In the latter part of the year, all eyes will be on the Synod of Bishops again, this while the reverberations of the last two assemblies of that body are still being felt. The October 2018 Fifteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops while focus on “Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment”. To this assembly, each bishops’ conference will elect one or more (depending on their size) delegates, while the Pope will also make a personal selection of delegates. One of these personal choices has already been made: Sérgio Cardinal Da Rocha, the archbishop of Brasília, was appointed as Relator General of next year’s assembly. He will outline the theme at the start of the assembly and summarise the delegates’ speeches so they can be condensed into concrete proposals.

Photo credit: [1] Bistum Fulda, [2] Fotos Presidencia El Salvador/Wikipedia