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).

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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

Episcopal highlights of the past month

Once again, as I continuously try to find my way with this blog, I have made a few changes. The regular Cardinal Watch posts have stopped for a few reasons: the information I shared in them is readily available on the Internet anyway, and note of the events (a death or an 80th birthday) is just as easily made via other social media. I will continue to do the latter, of course.

Instead, starting today, I will continue to mark events with a monthly post looking back at the previous month. For I do think that they are good to notice. Of course, if events warrant, more extensive posts can always be written, and I have little doubt I will do so, especially where it concerns the Dutch Church.

So here are some of the things that happened to cardinals of the world Church and local bishops in September:

• 5 September: Francisco Javier Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa turns 80. One of the members of Pope Francis’ advisory council, Cardinal Errázuriz is by no means retired. A priest of the Institute of Schönstatt Fathers, he was Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life from 1990 to 1996. Retaining his title of Archbishop, he became Bishop of Valparaíso in Chile in 1996 before moving on the nation’s premier see of Santiago in 1998. Blessed Pope John Paul II made him Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Pace in 2001. Cardinal Errázuriz retired in 2010.
• 9 September: Bishop Werner Radspieler retires as Auxiliary Bishop of Bamberg, after having fulfilled that function since 1986. His retirement was marked in true Bavarian style on the 29th.
• 17 September: Archbishop Robert Zollitsch retires as Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau.
• 21 September: Archbishop Jean-Claude Périsset retires as Apostolic Nuncio to Germany. Turning 75 next April, he had been  the Nuncio since 2007. Before that, Archbishop Périsset served as Adjunct Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (1996-1998), Apostolic Nuncio to Romania (1998-2007) and later also of Moldova (2003-2007). He will be succeeded by the former General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops.
• 24 September: Raffaele Cardinal Farina turns 80. The scholar-cardinal has performed a whole raft of functions, starting in 1977 as the Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical Salesian University, an office he held until 1983. From 1981 to 1989 he was Secretary of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences and from 1986 to 1991 Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture.He completed a second term as Rector Magnificus of the Salesian from 1991 to 1997. From 1997 to 2007 he was Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library. Made a Bishop in 2006 and an Archbishop in 2007, he was Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and Librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library from 2007 to 2012. Pope Benedict XVI made him Cardinal-Deacon of San Giovanni della Pigna in 2007. Since June of this year, Cardinal Farina is President of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion, which oversees the Vatican Bank. With the 80th birthdays of Cardinals Errázuriz and Farina, the number of electors stands at 110 out of 201 living cardinals.
• 27 September: Bishop Ernst Gutting, Auxiliary Bishop emeritus of Speyer, passes away at the age of 94. The socially active bishop was appointed auxiliary in 1971 and retired in 1994. Much of his work dealt with strengthening the position of women in the Church and society. Bishop Gutting was the nestor of the German episcopate.

A new episode of changes in the curia (part 1?)

And we’re up for another round of curial changes, as prelates retire from their offices and are replaced by new names. While many Vaticanistas are eagerly awaiting the appointment of a new prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (currently headed by 76-year-old Cardinal Levada) and even a new Secretary of State (Cardinal Bertone, the incumbent, is now 77), today we see a number of appointments which may not be as high-profile, but no less important.

Arguably the third-most important Congregation, that of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, sees a switch in secretaries. American Archbishop Joseph Di Noia is leaving to become vice-president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, directly assisting Cardinal Levada. Succeeding him at Divine Worship is English Bishop Arthur Roche (pictured at left), formerly of Leeds, who will be made an archbishop.

In the Congregation for Catholic Education, we note the departure of Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès. He had been that Congregation’s secretary since 2007, and will now take up duties as the archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library. His predecessor, Cardinal Farina, had resigned for age reasons earlier this month.

In the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Archbishop Piergiuseppe Vacchelli resigns as adjunct secretary. Succeeding him as the congregation’s third man, is Archbishop Protase Rugambwa (pictured, right), until today the ordinary of the Tanzanian Diocese of Kigoma.

Then, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli resigns as President of the Pontifical Council of the Family. He held the office since 2008. His successor is Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, until today bishop of the Italian Diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia. With the office comes the personal title of archbishop.

In the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the three tribunals of the Church, there is a new regent to succeed Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, who held the office since 2002. The new regent is Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, a Polish curial official.

In many ways, the Curia of the Catholic Church can be seen as a government, with ministries and secretaries. They are not only responsible for the daily affairs of the Church as institution, but also for essentially everything that has to do with the life of the Church and all her faithful. They give hand and feet to the Church’s eternal task of communicating and guarding the faith that has been given us. It is good for us Catholics to have a passing familiarity with the Curia.

The question now is… what will the coming weeks bring?