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Naród Polski - May 15, 2006
Pope Appoints Fifteen New Cardinals
 Vatican
City - A Consistory was held at St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Friday, March
24, 2006, where fifteen new Members to the College of Cardinals were
consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI. The task of Cardinals is to sustain and
assist the Holy Father in carrying out the apostolic office that has been
entrusted to him at the service of the Church.
The new
Cardinals are: Archbishop William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Archbishop Franc Rode, C.M.,
Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and
Societies of Apostolic Life; Archbishop Agostino Vallini, Prefect of the
Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura; Archbishop Jorge Liberato Urosa
Savino of Caracas, Venezuela; Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales of Manila, the
Philippines; Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, France; Archbishop
Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain; Archbishop Nicholas Cheong-Jin-suk
of Seoul, Korea; Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., of Boston,
Mass., U.S.A.; Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland; Arch-bishop
Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy; and Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B., of
Hong Kong, China.
 Pope
Benedict also raised to the dignity of Cardinal three ecclesiastics who are
older than 80, out of esteem for the services they have rendered to the
Church. They are: Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo,
Archpriest of the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls; Archbishop Peter
Poreku Dery, Archbishop Emeritus of Tamale, Ghana; and Fr. Albert Vanhoye,
S.J., the former praiseworthy Rector of the Pontifical Institute the
Biblicum, and Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission: a great
exegete.
A total
of 120 of the 193 cardinals - including 12 of those newly elevated - are
under 80 years of age and thus are eligible to vote in a conclave to choose
a pope. The Church's universality is reflected in the group of new Cardinals
who come from 15 countries and carry out a variety of offices. The Pontiff
asked that all Catholics raise to God a special prayer so that He will grant
them the necessary graces to carry out their mission generously.
In his
homily at the Consistory Mass, Pope Benedict said: The Ordinary Public
Consistory is an event that manifests most eloquently the universal nature
of the Church, which has spread to every corner of the world in order to
proclaim to all people the Good News of Christ our Savior. The beloved Pope
John Paul II celebrated nine Consistories in all, thus contributing
effectively to the renewal of the College of Cardinals along the lines
established by the Second Vatican Council and the Servant of God Pope Paul
VI. It is true that down the centuries the College of Cardinals has changed
in many ways, nevertheless the substance and essential nature of this
important ecclesial body remains unaltered. Its ancient roots, its
historical development and its composition today make it truly a kind of
“Senate”, called to cooperate closely with the Successor of Peter in
accomplishing the tasks connected with his universal apostolic ministry...
Total and
generous availability to serve others is the distinctive mark of those in
positions of authority in the Church, because it was thus for the Son of
Man, who came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). .. The first “servant of the servants of God”
is therefore Jesus. After him, and united with him, come the Apostles...
The Pope must be the first to make himself the servant of all...Peter, like
Paul, was utterly “conquered” by Christ - and like Paul he can exhort the
elders with full authority because it is no longer he who lives, but Christ
lives in him.
Yes,
these words of the Prince of the Apostles apply particularly to those who
are called to wear the cardinalatial scarlet: “I exhort the elders among
you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as
a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed” (1 Pet 5:1). Saint Peter
applies [these words] to himself as a “fellow elder” indicating that the
elder in the Church, the presbyter, through experience accumulated over the
years and through trials faced and overcome, must be particularly “in tune”
with the inner dynamic of the Paschal Mystery... The demands that your new
responsibility places upon you will confirm these words in a new and
exacting way. More closely linked to the Successor of Peter, you will be
called to work together with him in accomplishing his particular ecclesial
service, and this will mean for you a more intense participation in the
mystery of the Cross as you share in the sufferings of Christ... May the
scarlet that you now wear, always express the caritas Christi, inspiring you
to a passionate love for Christ, for his Church and for all humanity. You
now have an additional motive to seek to rekindle in yourselves those same
sentiments that led the incarnate Son of God to pour out his blood in
atonement for the sins of the whole world. I am counting on you, venerable
Brothers, I am counting on the entire College into which you are being
incorporated, to proclaim to the world that “Deus caritas est”, and to do so
above all through the witness of sincere communion among Christians: “By
this”, said Jesus, “all people will know that you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). I am counting on you, dear Brother
Cardinals, to ensure that the principle of love will spread far and wide,
and will give new life to the Church at every level of her hierarchy, in
every group of the faithful, in every religious Institute, in every
spiritual, apostolic or humanitarian initiative....
Through
Mary’s intercession, may the Spirit of truth and love be poured out
abundantly upon the new Cardinals and upon us all, so that as we become ever
more fully conformed to Christ, we may dedicate ourselves tirelessly to
building up the Church and to spreading the Gospel in the world.”
On the
following day, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Holy Father presided
at a solemn Concelebration of the Mass with the new Cardinals. All Members
of the College of Cardinals were invited to take part in this joyous
liturgical celebration. |
