Pope Benedict names 6 new cardinals
CWN – October 24, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will create six new cardinals in a consistory that will be held on November 24.
The six are Archbishop James Michael Harvey, prefect of the papal household since 1998; Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, head of the Maronite Catholic Church since 2011; Major Archbishop Baselios Cleemis (Isaac) Thottunkal, head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church since 2007; Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja (Nigeria); Archbishop Jesús Salazar Gómez of Bogota; and Archbishop Luís Antonio Tagle of Manila.
The addition of six cardinals will increase the membership of the College of Cardinals to 212 and the number of cardinal-electors to 120. There are currently 116 cardinal-electors, but two of them, Cardinals Francis Arinze and Renato Martino, will turn 80 before November 24.
Additional sources for this story: Annuncio Di Concistoro Per La Creazione Di Sei Nuovi Cardinali (Holy See) press.catholica.va/news_services/bulletin/news/29884.php?index=29884&lang=en
Why name new cardinals now? The Pope’s mysterious announcement.
By Phil Lawler | October 24, 2012
www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=942
Pope Benedict’s surprise announcement that he is naming 6 new cardinals raises at least three intriguing questions:
Why now?
The Pope has already elevated 22 prelates to the College of Cardinals this year, at a consistory held in February. Never before in the post-Vatican II era—in fact not since the 1920s—has a Roman Pontiff held two consistories for the elevation of new cardinals in a single calendar year.
Assuming that the Holy Father wants to stay within the limit of 120 cardinal-electors, there are only 4 openings now, with 2 more to occur (as current cardinals reach the age of 80 and lose their eligibility as electors) before the November consistory. So the Pope will be filling all the available spots. If he had waited until the end of March 2013, he could have named a dozen new voting cardinals.
The Pope could have named other cardinals who were over the age of 80, and thus not eligible as electors, but he chose to keep the number of new cardinals unusually small, selecting only a half-dozen. The last time a Pontiff named such a small class of new cardinals was in June 1977, when Pope Paul VI raised only four men to the College. At the time, it was widely suspected that Pope Paul was clearing the way for his chosen successor by making his longtime ally, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli of Florence, a cardinal. Cardinal Benelli would never become Pope, of course. But ironically Pope Paul did confer a red hat on a successor at that 1977 consistory: the young Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger.
In 1977 Pope Paul’s health was failing, and the June consistory was to be his last one. Some Vatican-watchers have questioned whether Pope Benedict is sensing that his own time is limited, and has called the consistory quickly to be sure that he leaves no important business undone. But none of the Pope’s six selections seem to represent urgent appointments. And more important there is no known reason, aside from his advancing age (he is now 85), to believe that Pope Benedict is nearing the end of his reign. So the Pope’s reasons for his sudden announcement and quick consistory remain mysterious.
Is geographical diversity a major factor?
In February, many reporters remarked that the new cardinals would add to the European dominance of the College of Cardinals. Indeed 16 of the 22 new cardinals were European, and 7 were Italian. Only one of the new cardinals at the February 2012 consistory was from Latin America, and none from Africa.
For his 2nd consistory of the year, however, the Pope has not chosen a single European prelate. His selections include the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic Church and India’s Syro-Malankara Church, along with Nigerian, Colombian, and Filipino prelates. Only one of the new cardinals is currently working in Rome: the American Archbishop James Harvey.
When Vatican-watchers speculate about the prelates who are likely to become cardinals, they generally begin their lists with the leaders of the Roman Curia. But the Pope’s list for November 2012 does not even include the prefect of the most important Vatican dicastery, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: his own successor, Archbishop Gerhard Müller.
The Pope seems to have chosen deliberately to broaden the geographical diversity of the College of Cardinals, to dilute the influence of the European cardinals and of the Roman Curia.
An echo of the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal?
Yet there was one official of the Roman Curia listed among the new cardinals: Archbishop Harvey, the prefect of the pontifical household. And here we come to the most interesting of the Pope’s selections.
It is not remarkable that the prefect of the pontifical household would become a cardinal. The last two men to hold that position, Cardinals Jacques-Paul Martin and Dino Monduzzi, both received a red hat when they left their post in the apostolic palace. But both of those prelates were entering retirement, whereas Archbishop Harvey, at 63, is still comparatively young.
As he announced that Archbishop Harvey would become a cardinal, Pope Benedict also revealed that he would name the American prelate as archpriest of the Roman basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls. This too is an unusual appointment, since the status of archpriest is usually conferred on a prelate close to retirement age. At 63, with 14 years of service in the apostolic palace, Archbishop Harvey might have been a logical candidate for appointment to a major metropolitan see in his native America. But once a prelate becomes archpriest of a Roman basilica, he is usually there to stay—at least until his retirement from ministry.
The news that Archbishop Harvey will enter the College of Cardinals comes just a day after a Vatican tribunal released its formal verdict in the case of Paolo Gabriele. Is it possible to ignore the fact that Gabriele was a member of the pontifical household, under Archbishop Harvey’s supervision? The Vatican has never disclosed the contents of a report submitted to the Pope by a commission of cardinals assigned to investigate the leaks. It is possible, surely, that the commission suggested some changes in the administration of the pontifical household.
No one has suggested that the Milwaukee native should bear the blame for the “Vatileaks” scandal. Still the fact remains that just as the “Vatileaks” story dies down, Archbishop Harvey is a surprise choice for a red hat and for a new job which, however prestigious, gives him little hope of any further promotion.
Vatican Diary / The consistory of the six cardinals
None of them is of the curia, or Italian, or from other European countries. The American Harvey will leave the position of prefect of the pontifical household. And with the Filipino Tagle, a follower of the “school of Bologna” will receive the scarlet
by ***
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350351?eng=y
VATICAN CITY, October 24, 2012 – In a surprise move, Benedict XVI announced this morning a consistory for the creation of six new cardinals.
Not that a new consistory was unexpected. Already before the the summer, in the sacred palaces it was seen as highly probable that there would be a new batch of scarlet in November, or at the latest in February of 2013.
What has come as a surprise is instead the fact that among the new cardinals there are neither Italians, nor Europeans, nor members of the curia in the strict sense. An exclusion willed with determination by the pope, who has not admitted exceptions even for his fellow countryman, the German Gerhard Ludwig Müller, whom he has called to lead the foremost of the Vatican congregations, that for the doctrine of the faith.
Next November 24, in fact, the scarlet will go to a North American (Archbishop James M. Harvey, 63, of the United States, prefect of the pontifical household, not a position of the curia per se), a Latin American (Rubén Salazar Gómez, 70, archbishop of Bogotà), an African (John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, 68, archbishop of Abuja in Nigeria) and no fewer than three Asians (Lebanese Maronite patriarch Bechara Rai, 72, major archbishop Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, 53, of the Syro-Malankarese in India, and archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, 55, of Manila in the Philippines).
One must go back to Pius XI to find another consistory without new scarlet for Italians and Europeans. This was the consistory of March 24, 1924, when pope Achille Ratti made cardinals of archbishops George Mundelein of Chicago and Patrick J. Hayes of New York. While at that of December 19, 1927, he gave the scarlet to two Frenchmen, a Canadian, a Spaniard, and a Hungarian.
At the 33 subsequent consistories celebrated in 85 years by six pontiffs, every time there has been at least one new Italian cardinal. This happened even at that of January 16, 1960, when John XXIII, although he created only four cardinals, gave the scarlet to the Italian Giuseppe Ferretto.
In short, Benedict XVI seems to have wanted to complete and balance the consistory of last February, which had been criticized, even by authoritative members of the hierarchy, as excessively marked by Italian, European, and curial appointments.
And in order to make the signal even more clear, pope Joseph Ratzinger has also avoided expanding the list of new cardinals with one or more over the age of eighty, a hypothesis that had nonetheless been taken into consideration.
This explains the decision, unusual in recent decades, to make a new batch of scarlet just a few months after the previous one.
Not since 1929 had there been two different creations of cardinals in a single year. With John XXIII, there were two consistories only three months apart, but in different solar years: the first on December 14, 1959, and the following on March 28, 1960.
Given the determination of Benedict XVI to keep out the Italians, Europeans, and members of the curia, the choices of the new cardinals were fairly predictable, with the exception of that of Harvey.
In Latin America, Colombia was the only big country no longer to have a cardinal elector, meaning one under the age of 80, when just a few years ago it had three. Without counting the fact that the pope had an opportunity to learn about the problems of that nation up close, during the “ad limina” visit of its episcopate.
With regard to Asia, it is easy to understand how the choice of the Maronite patriarch was made in the wake of the voyage to Lebanon and in the light of the dramatic situation in Syria. While that of the major Syro-Malankarese archbishop, in spite of the fact that he will be the youngest member of the college of cardinals, constitutes recognition of the great pastoral dynamism of that community.
After that it was natural that the Philippines, the only big country with a Catholic majority in Asia, should again have at least one cardinal elector. There were two possibilities: Cebu, the largest diocese, or Manila, the diocese of the capital. With Tagle, the selection of this latter prevailed.
As a side effect of this last selection, the college of cardinals will therefore have among its members one of the authors of the ubiquitous and controversial “History of Vatican Council II” produced by the so-called school of Bologna, proponent of a hermeneutic of “rupture.”
Tagle was in fact the author, as an ordinary priest, of a key chapter of the fourth volume published in 1999, the one entitled “The storm of November: the ‘black week.’” A chapter that the curial archbishop Agostino Marchetto, in a book that blasted the Bolognese historiography (“Vatican Council II. Counterpoint for its history,” published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana in 2005), defined as “a rich and even comprehensive study, but unbalanced,” written in “journalistic language” and here and there “lacking [in] the objectivity required of the true historian.”
Marchetto’s criticisms nonetheless did not prevent Tagle, bishop of Imus since 2001, from becoming first archbishop of Manila in 2011 and now cardinal.
Returning to the list of new cardinals, it is to be noted that for the African continent, the selection fell to the archbishop of the federal capital of Nigeria, a country that already has a cardinal in the person of the archbishop of Lagos. In this case as well, the desire to double the cardinalate presence does not come as a surprise, given the attentiveness and participation with which the Holy See is following the news of the ethnic-religious clash between Muslims and Christians that is bloodying the big African country.
In certain respects, however, the appointment of the American Harvey as cardinal remains surprising. The two previous prefects of the pontifical household in fact received the scarlet only at the end of their career: Jacques Martin at the age of 80, and Dino Monduzzi at 76. Harvey instead is only 63 years old, and the fact that the pope, in granting him the scarlet, should have announced his upcoming appointment as archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls smacks of a promotion, in spite of the fact that his name in recent months has been indicated among those who, in the past, are believed to have supported the unfortunate placement of Paolo Gabriele in the role of the pope’s butler.
The question of who will be the new prefect of the pontifical household obviously remains open. And it is easy to predict that this will be a highly personal decision of the pope. A decision that however he will not make before the consistory of November 24.
Finally, it can be noted that this time Benedict XVI has not wanted to deviate from the upper limit of 120 cardinal electors. This in fact is how many cardinals will have the right to vote in conclave, as of the date of the ceremony.
Currently there are 116 cardinal electors, but two of them will pass the age of 80 before the consistory: Francis Arinze on November 1 and Renato Raffaele Martino on the 23rd.
Between December 8, 2012 and December 25, 2013, another eleven cardinals will turn 80. And this means that within a year there could be another consistory with a dozen new cardinals.
But it is too early to make any projections about this.