It was a memorable weekend at the Vatican as Pope Francis created 21 new members of the College of Cardinals, bringing the total number of cardinals with a right to vote in the next conclave to 140 of whom 79 percent have been chosen by him. In his homily then, and at the Mass concelebrated with them on Sunday, he offered further advice.
Later after the midday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, he made a heartfelt public appeal for the commutation of the sentences of all prisoners on death row in the United States.
Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on Dec. 17, was in great form throughout the hour-long ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday afternoon, even though he had bruise marks on his right chin, seemingly the result of a slight accident in his apartment last Friday morning that was no cause for worry.
He smiled broadly, exchanged friendly words and even joked with some of the new cardinals as he placed the red hat on their heads, and gave them the cardinal’s ring and the title to a church in Rome. He was clearly enjoying the occasion.
After announcing the names of the new cardinals on. Oct. 6, he sent them a letter in which he urged them “to make every effort as a cardinal to embody the three attitudes with which an Argentinian poet (Francisco Luis Bernárdez) once characterized St. John of the Cross, and which are also applicable to us: “eyes raised, hands joined, feet bare.”
“Eyes raised, because your service will require you to lengthen your gaze and broaden your heart, in order to see farther and to love more expansively and with greater fervour,” he said.
“Hands joined, because what the Church most needs—together with the preaching of the Gospel—is your prayer to be able to shepherd well the flock of Christ.”
The letter continues: “Feet bare, because they touch the harsh realities of all those parts of the world overwhelmed by the pain and suffering due to war, discrimination, persecution, hunger and many forms of poverty; these will demand from you great compassion and mercy.”
On Saturday afternoon, before giving them the red hat, he warned them not to allow their hearts to go astray and “be dazzled by the allure of prestige, the seduction of power, by an overly human zeal for the Lord.” He urged them, “we need to look within, to stand before God in humility and before ourselves in sincerity, and ask: Where is my heart going?”
He told them, “Today, in a particular way, I would like to say to you, dear brothers who are being made cardinals: Make every effort to walk in the path of Jesus.”
This, he explained, meant three things: first, “To return to him and to put him back at the centre of everything”; Second, “To cultivate a passion for encounter”; third, “to be builders of communion and unity.”
“Dear brothers, let us walk in the way of Jesus, together; let us walk with humility; let us walk with wonder and let us walk with joy.”
The ceremony, attended by more than 5,000 people including relatives of the new cardinals, was more colorful than usual as not all the new cardinals wore the traditional cardinal’s red robes. Two wore the distinctive dress of their Eastern rites: Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and George Jacob Koovakad of the Syro Malabar Church of India. And, seemingly at the pope’s suggestion, the two new cardinals from the Order of Preachers, Timothy Radcliffe of England and Jean-Paul Vesco of Algeria, wore their white Dominican habits.
While Francis has reduced the average age of the cardinal electors, many members of the College of Cardinals are elderly, including Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the college who will be 91 in January. But the one who amazed everyone by his presence was Angelo Acerbi, a former Vatican diplomat, who turned 99 last September.
As the first name on Francis’ list of new cardinals, Cardinal Acerbi had the task of thanking the pope on behalf of all the new cardinals and he did so to perfection. He praised the pope for his incessant appeals for peace and an end to every war afflicting our world and said those appeals “today also become our wish and our prayer.”
Cardinal Acerbi is now the oldest of the 253 members of the College of Cardinals.
If a conclave were to be held today, the geographical breakdown of the 140 cardinal electors would be as follows: Europe would have 56, including 17 Italians; North America would have 14 including 10 from the United States and four from Canada; Latin America would have 24; Africa would have 18; Asia would have 25; and Oceania would have three electors.
Immediately, after the ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, the new cardinals went to the nearby Hall of Benedictions and the Vatican Museum’s Lapidary Gallery where, following tradition, friends and members of the public could greet them individually. As usual, the Italian cardinals had the largest number of well-wishers, but very many Ukrainians came also to greet their new cardinal, as did many Canadians to greet Frank Leo, the archbishop of Toronto, the only new cardinal from North America.
As that festive event ended, a large crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square to watch the traditional lighting of the Christmas Tree, which stands 95 feet tall, next to the Nativity Scene that had come from northern Italy. Earlier in the day, Pope Francis, greeting the donors of both the crib and tree, spoke again about the need for peace In the world saying, “Enough with wars! Enough with violence.”
Pope Francis presided over the Dec. 8 morning Mass with the new cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica. More than 5,500 people attended the Mass concelebrated by 110 cardinals, 100 bishops and 400 priests from many countries.
Since it was the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Francis centered his homily on Mary, who is venerated worldwide by Christians “portraying her with the native features and characteristics of any number of different peoples and cultures.”
Quoting Paul VI, he described her as “the authentic image of humanity.” He focused on “three aspects of her life that remind us of her closeness to us: Mary as daughter, bride and mother.”
As daughter, he said, “Sacred Scripture does not speak of Mary’s childhood. The Gospel presents her to us as she enters upon the stage of history: a young girl of deep faith, humble and simple,” he said, adding, “Our Lady appears before us as a beautiful flower that grew unnoticed until it finally blossomed in the gift of self. Mary’s life is a continuous gift of self-giving.”
As bride, he recalled, “[Mary was] chosen by God as a companion for his plan of salvation (cf. Lumen Gentium, 61). This is what the Council said. He chose a woman as his helper to carry out the plan of salvation. There is no salvation without a woman since the Church herself is also woman. She responded ‘Yes’ by saying, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord’ (Lk 1:38). She is a ‘handmaid’ not in the sense of being ‘servile’ and ‘humiliated,’ but in the sense that she was ‘trusted’ and ‘esteemed’ as one to whom the Lord entrusted his dearest treasures and the most important missions. Mary’s beauty, multifaceted like that of a diamond, reveals a new face: one of fidelity, loyalty and loving concern, all of which are typical of the mutual love of spouses.”
As mother, he said, “She is most often depicted as a mother with the Child Jesus in her arms or bending over the Son of God as he lay in the manger (cf. Lk 2:7). She was present beside her Son throughout his life….and finally at the foot of the cross—the mother of a condemned man— where Jesus himself gave her to us as our mother (cf. Jn 19:25-27).”
The first Latin American pope said, “There is the risk, however, of thinking that Mary’s beauty is somehow remote, out of reach, unattainable. That is not the case. We too have received this beauty as a gift in Baptism, when we were freed from sin and became sons and daughters of God.”
Like Mary, he said, “we are called to cultivate this beauty with a filial, spousal and maternal love. Like her, may we be grateful for what we have received and generous in what we give back. May we be men and women who are ready to say ‘Thank you’ and ‘Yes,’ not just with our words, but above all by our actions….Ever ready to make room for the Lord in our plans and aspirations, eager to embrace with maternal tenderness the brothers and sisters we encounter on our way.”
Then turning his gaze to today’s world, Francis said, “Sadly if we look around us, we realize that the presumption that we can be ‘like God’ (cf. Gen 3:1-6), which led to the first sin, continues to wound our human family. Neither love nor happiness can arise from this presumption of self-sufficiency. Those who see the rejection of any stable and lasting bond in life as progress do not grant freedom. Those who deprive fathers and mothers of respect, those who do not want children, those who reduce others to mere objects or treat them as nuisances, those who consider sharing with others a waste, and solidarity an impoverishment, cannot spread joy or build a future.”
Addressing the new cardinals and a global audience following by television, radio or social media, Pope Francis who is ever sensitive to the dire plight of so many in the world, including his own Argentia from where Vincente Bokalic Iglic C.M., one of the new cardinals comes, asked some pointed questions:
“What is the use of having a full bank account, a comfortable home, unreal virtual relationships, if our hearts remain cold, empty and closed? What is the use of achieving great financial growth in privileged countries if half the world is starving or ravaged by war, and the others look on with indifference? What is the use of travelling around the world if every encounter is reduced to a passing impression or a photograph that no one will remember in a few days or months?”
He urged the new cardinals and his brothers and sisters in the faith to ask Mary Immaculate “to convert us and make us a community in which filial, spousal and maternal love may be a rule and criterion of life.”
“Only then,” he said, “will families be united, will spouses truly share everything, will parents be physically present and close to their children and children will take care of their parents.”
At midday, the tireless Pope Francis greeted thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, including many from the United States, and after announcing that he would venerate the Immaculate Virgin Mary in front of her statue at Rome’s Spanish Steps in the afternoon, appealed for an end to the fighting in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, South Sudan and especially today in Syria, where rebels appear to have taken control of the country.
He concluded with a heartfelt appeal for death row prisoners in the United States, which significantly comes as Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in the country’s history, nears the end of his term.
Pope Francis previously called the death penalty “inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed” and “an offense against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society.” Today, he said:
“It comes to my heart to ask you all to pray for the prisoners who are on death row in the United States. I believe there are 13 or 15 of them. Let us pray that their sentences are commuted, changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”
