Pope tells new cardinals that they are called to look at the reality of suffering and injustice
Francis created five new cardinals today. They come from Laos, Mali, Sweden, El Salvador and Spain. He described today’s reality in which “It is the innocent who suffer and die as victims of war and terrorism;” a world in which “forms of enslavement [. . .] continue to violate human dignity even in the age of human rights;” where “refugee camps [. . .] at times seem more like a hell than a purgatory;” and where “all that is no longer useful, people included,” is discarded.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis presided over an Ordinary Public Consistory for the Creation of Cardinals in St Peter’s Basilica today. The Holy Father created five new cardinals placing the biretta on their heads, giving them their ring, and assigning them their titular church or diaconia with which they become formal members of the Roman clergy whose task is to elect the bishop of Rome, i.e. the pope.
The new cardinals made their profession of faith and sworn fidelity and obedience to Pope Francis and his successors. After the ceremony, Francis and the new cardinals paid an informal visit to the Mater Ecclesiae monastery to meet the pope emeritus, Benedict XVI.
In his address, Pope Francis said that the new cardinals are called to “serve” and face today’s reality in which “It is the innocent who suffer and die as victims of war and terrorism;” a world in which “forms of enslavement [. . .] continue to violate human dignity even in the age of human rights;” where “refugee camps [. . .] at times seem more like a hell than a purgatory;” and where “all that is no longer useful, people included,” is discarded.
The Holy Father also reflected upon the passage in the Gospel in which Jesus goes to Jerusalem. “During his public ministry, he made known the Father’s tender love by healing all who were oppressed by the evil one (cf. Acts 10:38). Now he realizes that the moment has come to press on to the very end, to eliminate evil at its root. And so, he walks resolutely towards the cross.
“We too, brothers and sisters, are journeying with Jesus along this path. I speak above all to you, dear new Cardinals. Jesus “is walking ahead of you”, and he asks you to follow him resolutely on his way. He calls you to look at reality, not to let yourselves be distracted by other interests or prospects. He has not called you to become “princes” of the Church, to “sit at his right or at his left”. He calls you to serve like him and with him. To serve the Father and your brothers and sisters. He calls you to face as he did the sin of the world and its effects on today’s humanity. Follow him, and walk ahead of the holy people of God, with your gaze fixed on the Lord’s cross and resurrection.”
The new cardinals come from Laos, Mali, Sweden, El Salvador and Spain.
Baptised by his mother and jailed
Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun is the first Laotian cardinal. He was baptised by his mother when he was eight years old, ordained a priest in a refugee camp in the middle of a bloody guerrilla insurgency, then jailed between 1984 and 1987. Mgr Mangkhanekhoun was born on 8 April 1944 in Bonha-Louan, in the Vientiane apostolic vicariate. He completed his studies of philosophy and theology in Canada where he joined the Voluntas Dei Secular Institute of Consecrated Life of Pontifical Right.
Back home, he found a country torn by war. Because of this, his priestly ordination took place on 5 November 1972 in a refugee camp. In 1975, he was appointed pastor and pro-vicar of Vientiane's apostolic vicar. In that same year, on 2 December, the Democratic People's Republic of Laos under Communist rule was proclaimed. He was arrested at the end of 1984 and held in prison until 1987 for engaging in "propaganda for Jesus". In prison, he was subjected to a severe regime with "chains on his arms and legs".
After he was released, he went back to pastoral work in his native province, Paksé, first as a simple priest and then as apostolic vicar on 30 October 2000 and as titular bishop of Aquae Novae in Proconsulari. On 22 April 2001, he was consecrated as bishop. On 2 February of this year, he became sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis apostolic administrator of Vientiane.
Cardinal Jean Zerbo is considered a leading actor in national reconciliation in Mali, where he was born on 27 December 1943. He was ordained as a priest in his hometown of Ségou on 10 July 1971.
After completing his studies in Lyon, France, he earned a licenciate in Sacred Scriptures at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome before going home where he served as parish priest in Markala and taught at the major seminary in the capital.
He became auxiliary bishop of Bamako on 21 June 1988. As such, he has repeatedly made appeals on behalf of his fellow citizens victimised by the civil war. He has strongly defended the rights of Mali’s Christians as well, saying that "we are going through a trial comparable to that of the disciples of the early centuries."
A missionary pastor in Africa
Juan José Omella i Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, has been called "a pastor with missionary experience in Africa". Born in Cretas (Zaragoza) on 21 April 1946, after studying at the seminar in Zaragoza, he attended the educational facilities of the White Fathers in Leuven/Louvain and Jerusalem. On 20 September 1970, he received his priestly ordination.
In addition to performing numerous assignments in various parishes, he spent a year in Africa, in Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On 15 July 1996, he was appointed bishop of Sasabe and auxiliary of Zaragoza. Engaged in solidarity work, he was the national advisor to Manos Unidas (1999-2015), the local Catholic Church anti-hunger charity. On 27 October 1999, he was transferred to the diocese of Barbastro-Monzón.
From 24 August 2001 to 19 December 2003 he served as apostolic administrator in Huesca and from 19 October 2001 to 19 December 2003 he also administered the Bishopric of Jaca. On 8 April 2004, he was appointed bishop of Calahorra y La Calzada-Logroño. On 6 November 2015, he was promoted to the episcopal see of Barcelona.
Anders Arborelius is the first Catholic bishop of Swedish origin since the Lutheran Reformation and the first cardinal from Europe’s Nordic countries. He was born on 24 September 1949 in Sorengo, a village in the Swiss canton of Ticino, to Swedish parents, but he grew up in the Scandinavian country, in Lund. He was baptised into the Lutheran community, but starting in childhood he had many contacts with the Catholic Church. This led him to embrace the Catholic faith in 1969 at the age of twenty.
In 1971, he entered the order of Discalced (Barefoot) Carmelites. He studied theology in Bruges (Belgium), where he also made his perpetual vows. He trained at the Pontifical Theological Faculty Teresianum in Rome. A man of great culture, he also holds a degree in modern languages (English, Spanish and German) from the University of Lund.
He became a priest on 8 September 1979 in Malmö, and for long while he lived at the Carmelite convent of Norraby, near Svalöv, southern Sweden. After about twenty years of monastic life, John Paul II appointed him bishop of Stockholm on 17 November 1998.
Between 2005 and 2015 he chaired the Bishops' Conference of Scandinavia where he continues to serve as vice president. He was also a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family between 2002 and 2009 and has been consultor of the Pontifical Council for the Laity since 21 January 2014.
Committed to greater harmony among the various Christian denominations, he has insisted that the Swedish Ecumenical Council include all traditions, from the Pentecostals to the ancient Assyrian Church. On 14 June, he was member of the delegation of Catholic and Lutheran prelates who met with the pope in the Vatican.
El Salvador’s first cardinal, Gregorio Rosa Chávez, 75, said that he was becoming a cardinal in "undeserved acknowledgment in the name of Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero". This is key to understanding his pastoral ministry. When he was young, he was a friend and a close associate of the archbishop who was killed on 24 March 1980 as he was celebrating Mass. His name is mentioned 17 times in Romero's diary.
Born on 3 September 1942 into a peasant family in Sociedad, in the diocese of San Miguel, the same as Monsignor Romero, he completed his philosophical and theological training between 1962 and 1969 at the San José Montaña Seminary in San Salvador. In 1965, he served at the minor seminary of his diocese of origin, receiving priestly ordination on 24 January 1970.
In the first three years of his ministry he was episcopal secretary in San Miguel, and spiritual assistant to various associations and apostolate lay movements. From 1973 to 1976, he studied at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) where he earned a licentiate in social communication. After he returned home, under the guidance of Archbishop Romero he became the rector of the Seminary of San José de la Montaña and a professor of theology, posts he held until 1982.
He has also been a member of the Council of Latin American Seminaries since 1979. Made titular bishop of Mulli on 17 February 1982, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, and received the episcopal ordination on 3 July. He is currently the pastor of the San Francisco Church in San Salvador and head of Caritas Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Caritas El Salvador.
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