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Pope appoints twenty new cardinals | News | T.W.

Pope appoints twenty new cardinals |  News |  T.W.

Pope Francis marks the future of the Church this Saturday (08.27.4022) with twenty new cardinals, including four Latin Americans, including the first from Paraguay, in another phase of preparation for his succession. The 85-year-old Latin American pontiff, who is dealing with aging ailments and has not ruled out resigning for health reasons, is preparing his successor by creating 20 new cardinals, 16 of whom will have voting rights. At the convention to elect his successor.

The ceremony will take place at 4:00 pm at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and many cardinals from around the world are expected to attend as they have been invited to the parallel and unprecedented two-day meeting on Monday and Tuesday. It is a special occasion, officially dedicated to the reform of the papal constitution, which has been in force since March 5, but for many it is a kind of pre-convention, which will examine the situation of the Church and meet with everyone. Others.

The meeting has sparked all kinds of speculation, especially over the health of the Pope, who underwent colon surgery in 2021 and pain in his right knee that prevents him from walking and forces him to use a wheelchair. With the investiture of the new cardinals, the first Latin American pope in history proposed a model for the throne of Peter, a religiously sensitive church minority or social issues from emerging distant countries.

Notable appointments

The list of 16 cardinals under the age of 80 who will become “princes of the Church” includes religious from India, Singapore, Mongolia or East Timor. Three Latin Americans stand out: Adalberto Martínez Flores, from Asuncion, who would become Paraguay’s first cardinal; Archbishop of Brasilia, Paulo Cesar Costa; and the first Cardinal Manas of the Amazon Region, Leonardo Ulrich. “Many of the Amazon’s faithful have confirmed with this appointment that the Pope has not forgotten the people there,” he said.

Among those over 80 to receive the cardinal title is Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, Archbishop Emeritus of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). “The challenge of the Church is to give hope to Colombia,” he told Vatican press services earlier, praising the services provided by the Church “in a very concrete way.” Sometimes “we bureaucratize it, [la Iglesia] It is anti-bureaucracy,” he added.

One of the most notable appointments was the bishop of San Diego, California, American Robert McIlroy, considered progressive for his stances on gay Catholics and abortion rights. Another symbolic appointment was from Giorgio Marengo, an Italian missionary working in Mongolia. He is the youngest cardinal in the world at the age of 48. Spain’s Fernando Verquez, 77, who has served as a past governor in Vatican City for half a century, said if the appointment was a reward for his administration, “being made a cardinal should not be seen as a gift, but as a call to greater responsibility, that is, to serve even more closely the successor of Peter.” . .

Church today

These new cardinals “represent the Church of today, with a strong presence in the southern hemisphere”, where 80% of Catholics live, Vaticanist Bernard Lecomte stressed. By the end of his eighth term, nearly one for each year of his papacy, Francis will have elected 83 cardinals out of a current total of 132 electors, nearly two-thirds. A two-thirds majority is precisely what is required, and the pope is the deciding figure when elected.

lgc (afp/vaticannews)