{"id":32018,"date":"2015-02-14T10:09:08","date_gmt":"2015-02-14T14:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/?p=32018"},"modified":"2015-02-14T10:47:08","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T14:47:08","slug":"20-new-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/20-new-cardinals\/","title":{"rendered":"20 new cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"new<\/a>We now have 20 new members of the College of Cardinals. Men who come from various parts of the world. 15 of the 20 are able to vote in a future conclave, and the 5 are honorary due to age. (Over the age of 80 a cardinal does not enter the conclave to elect a new Roman Pontiff.) The novelty in this group of cardinals is that several dioceses\u00a0receive for the first time: there are 5 firsts: Agrigento (Sicily),\u00a0Morelia (Mexico),\u00a0David (Panama),\u00a0Santiago de Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), Tonga (Kingdom of Tonga).<\/p>\n

One of the cardinals that catches my eye is His Eminence,\u00a0Berhaneyesus Demerew Cardinal Souraphiel, CM,\u00a0<\/strong>66, archbishop of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Cardinal Souraphiel comes from a country where\u00a0Catholics number less than 1 percent of a total population and the majority are Orthodox Christian; more than 30 percent are Muslim. He also brings the Vincentian charism to the College of Cardinals.<\/p>\n

The youngest cardinal at the age of 53 is\u00a0Soane Patita Paini Mafi, bishop of Tonga<\/strong>, a diocese with about 15,000 Catholics. Part of his education was in the USA\u00a0having spent\u00a0two years in Baltimore studying\u00a0psychology before returning home for parish and seminary assignments. Pope Benedict XVI named him bishop in\u00a02007.<\/p>\n

One of the honorary cardinals, His Eminence,\u00a0Luigi Cardinal De Magistris<\/strong>, 88, Major Pro-Penitentiary Emeritus, is noteworthy and well-deserving.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greater our responsibility in serving the Church, the more our hearts have to expand according to the measure of the heart of Christ. It means being able to love without measure, but also to be faithful in particular situations and with practical gestures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Francis told the new cardinals (but what the Pope says is applicable to all):<\/p>\n

The cardinalate is certainly an honour, but it is not honorific.\u00a0 This we already know from its name \u2013 \u201ccardinal\u201d \u2013 from the word \u201ccardo\u201d, a hinge.\u00a0 As such it is not a kind of accessory, a decoration, like an honorary title.\u00a0 Rather, it is a pivot, a point of support and movement essential for the life of the community.\u00a0 You are \u201chinges\u201d and are \u201cincardinated\u201d in the Church of Rome, which \u201cpresides over the entire assembly of charity\u201d (Lumen Gentium<\/em>, 13; cf. IGN. ANT.,\u00a0Ad Rom<\/em>., Prologue).<\/p>\n

In the Church, all \u201cpresiding\u201d flows from charity, must be exercised in charity, and is ordered towards charity.\u00a0 Here too the Church of Rome exercises an exemplary role.\u00a0 Just as she presides in charity, so too each particular Church is called, within its own sphere, to preside in charity.<\/p>\n

For this reason, I believe that the \u201chymn to charity\u201d in Saint Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians can be taken as a guiding theme for this celebration and for your ministry, especially for those of you who today enter the College of Cardinals.\u00a0 All of us, myself first and each of you with me, would do well to let ourselves be guided by the inspired words of the apostle Paul, especially in the passage where he lists the marks of charity.\u00a0 May our Mother Mary help us to listen.\u00a0 She gave the world Jesus, charity incarnate, who is \u201cthe more excellent\u00a0Way<\/em>\u201d (cf.\u00a01 Cor<\/em>\u00a012:31); may she help us to receive this Word and always to advance on this Way.\u00a0 May she assist us by her humility and maternal tenderness, because charity, as God\u2019s gift, grows wherever humility and tenderness are found.<\/p>\n

Saint Paul tells us that charity is, above all, \u201cpatient\u201d and \u201ckind\u201d.\u00a0 The greater our responsibility in serving the Church, the more our hearts must expand according to the measure of the heart of Christ.\u00a0 \u201cPatience\u201d \u2013 \u201cforbearance\u201d \u2013 is in some sense synonymous with catholicity.\u00a0 It means being able to love without limits, but also to be faithful in particular situations and with practical gestures.\u00a0 It means loving what is great without neglecting what is small; loving the little things within the horizon of the great things, since \u201cnon coerceri a maximo, contineri tamen a minimo divinum est<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 To know how to love through acts of kindness.\u00a0 \u201cKindness\u201d \u2013 benevolence \u2013means the firm and persevering intention to always will the good of others, even those unfriendly to us.<\/p>\n

The Apostle goes on to say that charity \u201cis not jealous or boastful, it is not puffed up with pride\u201d.\u00a0 This is surely a miracle of love, since we humans \u2013 all of us, at every stage of our lives \u2013 are inclined to jealousy and pride, since our nature is wounded by sin.\u00a0 Nor are Church dignitaries immune from this temptation.\u00a0 But for this very reason, dear brothers, the divine power of love, which transforms hearts, can be all the more evident in us, so that it is no longer you who live, but rather Christ who lives in you.\u00a0 And Jesus is love to the fullest.<\/p>\n

Saint Paul then tells us that charity \u201cis not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way\u201d.\u00a0 These two characteristics show that those who abide in charity are not self-centred.\u00a0 The self-centred inevitably become disrespectful; very often they do not even notice this, since \u201crespect\u201d is precisely the ability to acknowledge others, to acknowledge their dignity, their condition, their needs.\u00a0 The self-centred person inevitably seeks his own interests; he thinks this is normal, even necessary.\u00a0 Those \u201cinterests\u201d can even be cloaked in noble appearances, but underlying them all is always \u201cself-interest\u201d.\u00a0 Charity, however, makes us draw back from the centre in order to set ourselves in the real centre, which is Christ alone.\u00a0 Then, and only then, can we be persons who are respectful and attentive to the good of others.<\/p>\n

Charity, Saint Paul says, \u201cis not irritable, it is not resentful\u201d.\u00a0 Pastors close to their people have plenty of opportunities to be irritable, to feel anger.\u00a0 Perhaps we risk being all the more irritable in relationships with our confreres, since in effect we have less excuses.\u00a0 Even here, charity, and charity alone, frees us.\u00a0 It frees us from the risk of reacting impulsively, of saying or doing the wrong thing; above all it frees us from the mortal danger of pent-up anger, of that smouldering anger which makes us brood over wrongs we have received.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 This is unacceptable in a man of the Church.\u00a0 Even if a momentary outburst is forgivable, this is not the case with rancour.\u00a0 God save us from that!<\/p>\n

Charity \u2013 Saint Paul adds \u2013 \u201cdoes not rejoice at the wrong, but rejoices in the right\u201d.\u00a0 Those called to the service of governance in the Church need to have a strong sense of justice, so that any form of injustice becomes unacceptable, even those which might bring gain to himself or to the Church.\u00a0 At the same time, he must \u201crejoice in the right\u201d.\u00a0 What a beautiful phrase!\u00a0 The man of God is someone captivated by truth, one who encounters it fully in the word and flesh of Jesus Christ, the inexhaustible source of our joy.\u00a0 May the people of God always see in us a firm condemnation of injustice and joyful service to the truth.<\/p>\n

Finally, \u201clove bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things\u201d.\u00a0 Here, in four words, is a spiritual and pastoral programme of life.\u00a0 The love of Christ, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, enables us to live like this, to be like this: as persons always ready to forgive; always ready to trust, because we are full of faith in God; always ready to inspire hope, because we ourselves are full of hope in God; persons ready to bear patiently every situation and each of our brothers and sisters, in union with Christ, who bore with love the burden of our sins.<\/p>\n

Dear brothers, this comes to us not from ourselves, but from God.\u00a0 God is love and he accomplishes all this in us if only we prove docile to the working of his Holy Spirit.\u00a0 This, then, is how we are to be: \u201cincardinated\u201d and docile.\u00a0 The more we are \u201cincardinated\u201d in the Church of Rome, the more we should become docile to the Spirit, so that charity can give form and meaning to all that we are and all that we do.\u00a0 Incardinated in the Church which presides in charity, docile to the Holy Spirit who pours into our hearts the love of God (cf.\u00a0Rom<\/em>\u00a05:5).\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

Saturday, 14 February 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We now have 20 new members of the College of Cardinals. Men who come from various parts of the world. 15 of the 20 are able to vote in a future conclave, and the 5 are honorary due to age. (Over the age of 80 a cardinal does not enter the conclave to elect a … Continue reading 20 new cardinals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,84],"tags":[3036,1907,32107],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32018"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32024,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32018\/revisions\/32024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}