Pope surprises everyone with
a mini-consistory on Nov. 24
to create six new cardinals
Adapted from
Oct. 24, 2012
At the end of his Wednesday catechesis and plurilingual greetings to the pilgrims, Pope Benedict XVI announced a consistory for the creation of six new Cardinals to take place on November 24. Here is a translation of his announcement:
And now, with great joy, I announce that on November 24, I will hold a Consistory to name six new members of the College of Cardinals.
Cardinals have the task of helping the Success of Peter carry out his ministry of confirming our brethren in the faith and to be the principle and foundation of unity and communion in the Church.
Here are the names of the new cardinals:
1. Mons. JAMES MICHAEL HARVEY, Prefect of the Pontifical Household, whom I will also name Arch-Priest of the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls.
2. His Beatitude BÉCHARA BOUTROS RAÏ, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites (Lebanon)
3. His Beatitude BASELIOS CLEEMIS THOTTUNKAL, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankar Church (India)
4. Mons. JOHN OLORUNFEMI ONAIYEKAN, Archbishop of Abuja (Nigeria)
5. Mons. RUBÉN SALAZAR GÓMEZ, Archbishop of Bogotá (Colombia)
6. Mons. LUIS ANTONIO TAGLE, Archbishop of Manila (Philippines)
The new cardinals, as you heard, will carry out their ministry in the service of the Holy See or as Pastors of local Churches in various parts of the world.
I invite everyone to pray for the newly selected prelates, asking the material intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that they may always love Christ and his Church with courage and dedication.
This is Benedict XVI’s fifth consistory to create new cardinals, and with the consistory of November 24, he will have created 90 cardinals.
On that date, the College of Cardinals will have 211 members: 120 are eligible to vote in conclave being under age 80.
In a geographical breakdown of current Cardinal-electors, Europe has 62; North America 14, South America 21, Africa 11, Asia 11, Oceania 3.
My first reaction was that Benedict XVI stumped the Vaticanistas and their convoluted speculations about the whys and wherefores of his choices for cardinal. Everyone who had written about the need for the Pope to replace a number of cardinals who are turning 80 was positive he would do this at the earliest in February 2014 when he would have at least 20 elector seats vacant.
No one thought he would call a mini-consistory reminiscent of that at which he and four others were created cardinal by Paul VI in 1977. And of course, the speculative post-facto commentary about his decision was immediately forthcoming, with some rather absurd conclusions. Consider this one from Vatican Insider and Andrea Tornielli, even though the emphasis on the lack of any Italian on the list has not been exclusive to the Italian Vaticanistas:
Benedict’s surprise move:
A new Consistory
by ANDREA TORNIELLI
Oct. 24, 2012
The announcement of the new nominations that are to be celebrated in a mini-consistory this coming 24 November was unexpected and
somewhat 'shocking', considering Benedict XVI’s choices.
For the first time, the Pope has called a consistory without including one single Italian Curia member or diocesan bishop in the list.
[First, since the College of Cardinals has become predominantly non-Italian, there is no rule that requires the Pope to name an Italian every time he calls a consistory. Second, there are no Italian heads of Curial dicasteries who are not already cardinals, as all who occupy positions usually held by cardinals were elevated at the last consistory. There may be a reason why the new Patriarch of Venice, Mons. Francesco Moraglia, is not among the bishops promoted in the next consistory, which seems to me because the Pope only intended this time to complete the maximum number of cardinal electors (120), as he will in the next consistory during which a greater number of vacancies will be filled. Obviously, he has pastoral priorities and considerations for naming the five heads of local Churches that he did.]
This is the first time that the Prefect of one of the most important Vatican congregations, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (once called “the Supreme” congregation), is missing his turn and not getting the red biretta.
[This was the real surprise to me, as one would have thought it was more 'important' for Mons. Mueller to be made cardinal ahead of Mons. Harvey. Again, as with Mons. Moraglia, no one doubts Mueller will be in the next consistory. BTW, a similar argument as for Mons. Moraglia might be made for Mons. Sviatoslav Shevchuk, 42-year-old Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who would probably become the youngest ever cardinal to be named in modern times. Karol Wojtyla was 47 when he was made cardinal. Joseph Ratzinger was 50.]
Looking through the list of cardinals Pope Benedict XVI read out at the end of today’s general audience,
it is obvious that next November’s consistory is a necessary extension of the one that was celebrated last February and provoked a great deal of criticism because too many Italians and Curia members were created cardinals. [That was, of course, the prevailing view of almost all MSM and Catholic media who reported on the last consistory. So for Tornielli to now depict this mini-consistory as an 'extension' of the previous one is, IMHO, an attempt to rationalize their earlier criticism.]
Many of these individuals were known to be close to the Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone. No Africans or bishops of local Churches appeared in the February list, instead, other prelates with fast careers in the Curia were selected. [This is a criticism that I thought at the time was quite insulting, and still is, to Benedict XVI, as though he only made them cardinals because they were proteges of Bertone. Their curial positions happen to be traditionally occupied by cardinals - the rationale being that Curial heads of administrative (mostly financial) dicasteries must have the 'clout' to deal with the cardinal heads of the dicasteries with specific tasks, whose activities fall within the supervision of the administrative dicasteries. To begin with, would Benedict XVI have appointed these lesser-known Curial heads to their positions if they were not qualified? And if they are qualified, their patronage by Bertone ought not to disqualify them!]
Benedict XVI intended today’s announcement as a way of balancing out the choices made during the last two consistories and the fact that he decided not to include any Italians or Europeans is significant.
It is not hard to see why the Pope chose the men he did
[Then why did you call the choices 'shocking'?]
Bechara Boutros Rai, the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch (Lebanon) recently welcomed Ratzinger in Lebanon and the nomination is a sign of the Holy See’s solidarity with Christians in the Middle East at such a difficult phase of their history.
Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Church of Trivandrum (India) and the young Archbishop of Manila (Philippines) Luis Antonio Tagle, are indicative of the importance the Pope gives to the Asian continent.
[They also represent two different cases altogether: The Syro-Malankar Church, along with the Syro-Malabar Church (whose Major Archbishop wad made a cardinal in the last consistory), is one of the two Apostolic Churches in India that trace their origin to St. Philip the Apostle; and Mons. Tagle heads the premier archdiocese of the Philippines, which is the only Asian country with an overwhelming Catholic majority.]
John Olorunfermi Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja (Nigeria) was chosen as the cardinal representing Africa and a martyr Church living under the fear of terrorist attacks. Rubén Salazar Gomez, Archbishop of Bogotá (Colombia), was the Pope’s Latin American choice.
The living predecessors of all five diocesan heads are over age 80, so the Pope has respected the unwritten rule against naming a current diocesan bishop cardinal when the emeritus bishop can still vote in conclave.
[Presumably, this keeps any diocese from having a numerical disadvantage over the others. The Pope did not observe this rule, however, when he named Mons. Dolan cardinal, given the importance of the Archdiocese (and that Dolan is the present head of the US bishops' conference), even if his predecessor, Mons. Egan, has not yet turned 80.]
The real surprise was the inclusion of the American, James Michael Harvey, Prefect of the Papal Household, who has been in charge of organising the Pope’s audiences and
travels [???Isn't that the task of papal trip coordinator Alberto Gasbarri????] for the past 14 years.
There was talk in the past that he might leave his position to take over a diocese in the United States. By creating him cardinal, Papa Ratzinger is also entrusting him with the archpriesthood of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls,
usually given to clerics who are over seventy five years old, and who usually stay in office beyond their eightieth birthday, as was recently the case with Cardinal Montezemolo.
[That's a strange statement by Tornielli to make, considering that Montezemolo was the first-ever Arch Priest of St. Paul outside the Walls, very possibly an honor created for him by Benedict XVI when he turned 80 in 2005, later naming him cardinal in his first consistory in 2006. [As a trained architect, Montezemolo was instrumental in the restoration work on the Basilica and the literally ground-breaking investigations into the Tomb of St. Paul.] In short, there really is no tradition to speak of yet about the Arch Priests of St. Paul outside the Walls. But then again, Tornielli appears to be laying the ground for his next speculation.]
Harvey, 63, will replace Cardinal Francesco Monterisi, 78. Harvey’s nomination is
the only one which can be linked to the Vatileaks scandal that has devastated those closest to the Pope.
[1) Why must there be anything in the cardinal nominations that can be linked to Vatileaks? Since when does Vatileaks ebcome the standard for judging everything the Pope does? 2)'Devastated those closest to the Pope'? What about the Pope himself?? The treason of someone who was treated and trusted as family for six years must have shaken someone like Benedict XVI who has probably not experienced anything remotely like this, but of course, he has exceptional inner and 'higher' resources to cope with such a situation than anyone has. Still, that Gabriele could do what he did to a man in his 80s makes his crimes even more unspeakable!
Mons. Harvey played a key role in the selection of Paolo Gabriele as papal butler, substituting Angelo Gugel.
[If I recall the stories at the time of Gabriele's arrest, Gabriele had worked for Harvey. who, as Prefect of the Pontifical Household named by John Paul II, recommended Gabriele to the Wojtyla household as an assistant valet; Gabriele was therefore in line to be promoted after the veteran Angelo Gugel retired in 2006, and Gugel himself reportedly endorsed the choice. Mons. Harvey must have excellent relations with the Vaticanistas because not one of them has ever suggested, as they easily could if they wanted to, that he 'planted' Gabriele in the papal household for whatever reasons of his own.]
Though Harvey will be leaving the Apostolic Palace, he is not leaving Rome. This means that despite
his wish to reorganise his entourage [Does Tornielli know this for a fact?], the Pope still trusts Harvey who is indeed not named at all in the investigations which led to Paolo Gabriele being charged with stealing the Pope’s private papers.
It will be interesting to see who will take over from the American in the Prefecture: his deputy, Fr. Leonardo Sapienza, has just been promoted to the post although there had been rumours in the past about the Pope’s personal secretary, Georg Gänswein, taking over. This, however, is seen as unlikely.
[One wouild think so! Can anyone imagine the Pope having to take on and train a new private secretary at this time in his life, and introduce another relative 'unknown' into the papal family? Besides, if GG were to be given any oher assignment, even if he were bishop of an important German diocese, all the Vaticanistas would fallaciously make of him another Scicluna or Tobin, and claim that in his case, he was being 'promoted by removal' because of Vatileaks!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/10/2012 13:15]