The next consistory:
Many new cardinals will be Italian
because of the offices they hold
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from
Oct. 14, 2010
The announcement will probably be made at the end of the General Audience next Wednesday, although it may also be at the Angelus message this Sunday.
Benedict XVI will name new cardinals who will receive the red hat at a consistory on the November 20-21 weekend at the Feast of Christ the King. They will join the 'most exclusive club in the world' - those who will elect the next Pope if they have not reached 80 by the time of the next Conclave.
The cardinal symbol of red symbolizes the commitment to serve the Church and the Pope «
usque ad sanguinis effusionem» - up to the point of shedding their own blood.
The list is reportedly still being fine-tuned, but it appears that the next consistory will also be a 'tricolor' consistory, because it is thought that at least half of the new cardinals will be Italian - mostly by virtue of Curial or metropolitan positions they now occupy that are traditionally led by a cardinal.
Among the Italians from the Curia: Angelo Amato and Mauro Piacenza, prefects, respectively of teh Congregations for the Causes of Sainthood and of the Clergy; Fortunato Baldelli, Major Penitentiary; Velasio De Paolis, President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs (and recently named apostolic administrator of the Legionaries of Christ during the latter's reorganization and clean-up); and Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for culture.
Two other Curial probables : Francesco Monterisi, Arch-Priest of the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls; and Paolo Sardi, pro-Patron of the Sovereign order of Malta.
In the Italian dioceses, the probable new cardinals are Mons. Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of Florence; and Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo.
Unlikely to be named cardinal is the newly-appointed successor to Cardinal Severino Poletto as Archbishop of Turin, because generally, a second cardinal is not named for a diocese if it already has a cardinal who has not yet reached 80. (Poletto is only 77.)
But if that rule is followed, that would exclude the current archbishops of New York, Brussels, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Bogota.
Among the non-Italians, the two Curial prelates considered to be definite candidates are: US Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Segnatura; and Mons. Kurt Koch, the new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Among the non-Italian metropolitans: Reinhard Marx of Munich; Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw; Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa (Congo); and Malcom Ranjith Patabendige of Colombo (Sri Lanka).
The Holy Father is also expected to name some prelates who are already 80 years old or older: Maestro Domenico Bartolucci, who was a longtime director of the Sistine Chapel Choir; the Bavarian Mons , Walter Brandmueller who was president of the Pontifical Academy for Historical Sciences; and the moral theologian, Mons. Elio Sgreccia, former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Sorry for all the defective text enhancements that I have to keep going in to correct. For some reason, the Forum system is currently operating on a 'minimal' level - where text enhancements, smileys, and other features, are not available, so I have to type in the commands for the text enhancements, and as with anything that requires typing, I make frequent mistakes... The system is also annoyingly slow today.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/10/2010 19:35]