CBCP News: Pope names Tagle among top-ranking cardinals

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. RCAM AOC

By Roy Lagarde CBCP News

May 1, 2020

Manila, Philippines

Pope Francis on Friday has elevated Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle to the order of “cardinal bishops”, the highest rank within the College of Cardinals.

Tagle and Cardinal Beniamino Stella are the newest members of the group, joining the ranks of 12 others who are mostly from the Latin rite and three cardinal patriarchs from the Oriental Churches.

The College of Cardinals has three ranks: cardinal deacons, cardinal priests, and cardinal bishops.

Cardinal bishops hold jurisdiction over a church in a suburb of Rome, while working in departments of the Roman Curia, the central administration of the church.

Cardinal deacons, often called “the pope’s cabinet”, are mostly curial officials, while cardinal priests are those working in dioceses all over the world.

It is also from the ranks of cardinal bishops that the Dean of College of Cardinals is elected. The dean presides at the conclave in the case of “sede vacante”, a period when there is no pope.

The dean also represents the Holy See during the sede vacante, and asks the pope-elect if he accepts the role.

There are customarily six cardinal bishops from the Latin Church until Pope Francis broke the tradition and appointed more of them.

The new additions to the group were deemed necessary as one of its members, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, turned 80, the retirement age for cardinals, last February. Six other members had been over the age of 80, making them ineligible to enter a conclave.

The former Manila archbishop left the Philippines in February to assume his post as prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, a powerful Vatican office overseeing the church’s vast mission territories.

Also known as “Propaganda Fidei,” its prefect is also known as the “red pope” because of its considerable power in the Roman Curia and the appointment of bishops in mission lands.

Since his elevation as cardinal, he was also given the church of St. Felix of Cantalice in the Centocelle as his “titular church”.

Cardinal Tagle’s new appointment was made on May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Incidentally, he was appointed to the top Vatican post last Dec. 8, 2019, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Vatican appointed Bishop Tagle now the Archbishop of Manila

Manila, Philippine Inquirer - Imus Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle, a former member of a theological body once headed by Pope Benedict XVI before he became Pontiff, has been appointed the new archbishop of Manila.

Tagle took over the Manila archdiocese from Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, whose resignation has been accepted by the Pope.

Tagle’s appointment was announced yesterday in the Vatican and by Charge d’Affaires Msgr. Gabor Pinter of the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila.

Tagle hosts a Sunday program, “The Word Exposed,” on ANC, Studio 23 and the government-owned NBN. He also has a Facebook page, which has been flooded with congratulations from online fans.

He is affectionately known by his nickname, Chito.

‘Am going home’

“Malaya na ako. Uwi na ako sa amin (I’m free. I’m going home),” a smiling Rosales told senior clergymen and members of the media after leading the Angelus at the chapel in his official residence in Intramuros.

Pope names 24 new cardinals

Photo Source: The Nation

Vatican City, Catholic Culture - At his regular weekly public audience on October 20, Pope Benedict XVI announced his plan to elevate 24 new members to the College of Cardinals.

Confirming the expectations of Vatican journalists, the Holy Father announced that a consistory will be held on November 20. He named 20 prelates who will become voting members of the College of Cardinals. Four others who will receive a red hat in recognition of their long service to the Church, but because they are over the age of 80 they will not be eligible to participate in papal election.

The 20 new cardinal-electors will bring the total number of voting cardinals to 121—one above the normative maximum of 120. However the Pope has the authority to waive that maximum—as Pope John Paul II did in the past. The number will drop back down to 120 by January 2011, when the French Cardinal Bernard Panafieu, the retired Archbishop of Marseilles, turns 80.

The twenty new cardinal-electors will be:

1. Archbishop Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints;
2. Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, the Major Penitentiary;
3. Archbishop Raymond Burke, the American-born prefect of the Apostolic Signatura;
4. Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil;
5. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the president of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See;
6. Archbishop Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity;
7. Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich;
8. Archbishop Medardo Mazombwe, the retired Archbishop of Lusaka, Zaire;
9. Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo;
10. Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, the archpriest of the Roman basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls;
11. Coptic Catholic Patriarch Antonios Naguib of Alexandria, Egypt—the relator general for the current Synod of Bishops for the Middle East;
12. Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw;
13. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy;
14. Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Italy;
15. Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don of Colombo, Sri Lanka;
16. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture;
17. Archbishop Robert Sarah, the new president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum—the charitable arm of the papacy;
18. Archbishop Paolo Sardi, the pro-patron of the Knights of Malta;
19. Archbishop Raul Vela Chiriboga, the retired Archbishop of Quito, Ecuador; and
20. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC.

The four prelates who will be raised to the College of Cardinals, but ineligible to vote in a papal election because of age, are:

1. Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci, the longtime director (now retired) of the Sistine Chapel choir;
2. Msgr. Walter Brandmuller, the former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences;
3. Archbishop José Manuel Estepa Llaurens, the former ordinary for the Spanish military forces; and
4. Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, the former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Most of the Pope’s choices were expected, although the names of Archbishops Mazombwe and Vela were not often heard in the speculation prior to the papal announcement. Interestingly, both of these archbishops are already retired—although they remain eligible to take part in a conclave. Cardinal-elect Mazombwe, who is 79, will lose that eligibility next September.

Archbishop Marx will be the youngest of the new cardinals, and the youngest member of the College as a whole. Msgr. Bartolucci, who is 93, will become the 4th-oldest member of the College.

Among the prelates whose names are conspicuously absent from the list of new cardinals are two leading archbishops of the English-speaking world: Archbishops Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Timothy Dolan of New York. Both archbishops have succeeded cardinals who remain under the age of 80: Cardinals Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster and Edward Egan of New York. Vatican tradition weighs against the appointment of a new cardinal from any archdiocese whose former leader remains a cardinal-elector.