www.catholicnews.sg SUNDAY DECEMBER 16, 2012
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Pope creates 6 new cardinals, 3 from Asia
NO. 25
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By Alessandro Speciale VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict
XVI created six new cardinals on Nov 24. Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Syro-Malankara Archbishop Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal of India, and Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai of Lebanon received the red hat in a ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica. Archbishop James Michael Harvey from the US, Nigerian Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan and Colombian Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez were also installed. The pope’s second batch of
did not include anyone from Europe and just one person from the ranks of the Roman Curia. The pontiff’s previous consistory, in February, had been criticised for leaning heavily to Italian and other European churchmen in a future conclave, even as the Church continues to shrink in the old world and grows rapidly in Asia and Africa. With the latest appointments, 120 out of a total of 211 living cardinals could be called upon to elect Pope Benedict’s successor. Only cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Of the 120 cardinal-electors, 62 – or slightly more than half – now come from Europe, 35 are from the Americas and 11 respectively from Asia and Africa. Just one comes from Oceania, Australia’s Cardinal George Pell. The new consistory raises the percentage of Asian electors from seven to nine percent. Catholics in Asia account for just over 10 percent of the worldwide Catholic population. At the same time, the percentage of European electors dropped
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Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila (left) is greeted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. The Filipino Church leader was made a cardinal by the pope at the Vatican on Nov 24. CNS photo
slightly to just over 51 percent. But the continent remains statistically over represented, since the Vatican reports that fewer than 24 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Europe. In his homily before bestowing the red hat, the pope seemed to address such concerns by stressing repeatedly the “universality� of the Catholic Church. The word “catholic� comes from the Greek term for “universal�. “In this consistory,� he said, “I want to highlight in particu-
lar the fact that the Church is the Church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents. She is the Church of Pentecost: amid the polyphony of the various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God.� The College of Cardinals is particularly representative of the Church’s “unity and universality: It presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church�, the pope said. He recalled that Jesus gave
The new cardinals raise the percentage of Asian papal electors from seven to nine percent. Catholics in Asia account for just over 10 percent of the world’s Catholics.
the apostles the mission to bear witness “all over the world, transcending the cultural and religious tality, “so as to open themselves to the universal Kingdom of God�. In this sense, even when they spread throughout the world and founded different local Churches, they always thought of their Church not as a “community of their own� but as part of the “unique, universal and all-inclusive identity of the Catholica that is realised in every local Church�. After the pope’s homily, the
him and to the Church before receiving the red hat and a ring marking their new rank. Some of them, including Cardinal Tagle, were visibly moved and shed tears. Ă„ UCANEWS.COM, CNS
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