Cardinal Grech: Benedict XVI was misunderstood throughout his life

Vatican City, May 22, 2017 / 03:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Only seven months after Pope Francis’ last consistory, he will create five new cardinals in June. He continues a pattern of finding cardinals at the peripheries of the world, from dioceses which have not traditionally had a cardinal.

The next consistory will take place June 28.

In this new batch Pope Francis has confirmed his preference for dioceses that are not traditional sees for a cardinal. For instance, this is the first time a bishop from El Salvador, Sweden, Mali, and Laos will receive a red hat.

The Pope’s choice of Bishop Louis Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, Vicar Apostolic of Paksé, reveals his particular interest in Laos.

Laos, a one-party communist republic averse to religion, is one of the few countries lacking full diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
 
However, in recent years the Laotian government has been showing a greater openness to the international community, and also to the religious sentiment of its mostly Buddhist population.

There are only 45,000 Catholics in Laos, less than one percent of the 7 million Laotians. Laos has no dioceses: there are only three apostolic vicariates with 22 priests and 11 religious priests. Three new priests were ordained in the country in 2016, and two more will be ordained this year.

The beatification of Italian missionary Mario Borzaga, of the Laotian priest Joseph Thao Thien and 14 companions martyred in 1960 gave more impetus to the Laotian “baby Church,” to use Bishop Mangkhanekhoun’s words.

The beatification Mass took place in Vientiane on Dec. 11, 2016, with the participation of over 7,000 faithful. The government’s permission for the public celebration was considered a sign that the Laotian government is changing its hostile attitude towards religion. Meanwhile, the Holy See is trying to establish full diplomatic ties with the country in order to better protect the Catholic flock.

In Mali, the red biretta for Archbishop Jean Zerbo of Bamao can also be read through diplomatic lense.

Archbishop Zerbo has strongly committed to the ongoing dialogue for reconciliation in his country. In 2012, Al-Qaeda exploited a rebellion carried out by ethnic Tuaregs and tried to take control of the central government. Ever since, Mali has been living in a constant political crisis that has turned into a refugee crisis.

His elevation as cardinal will give Archbishop Zerbo more weight in the peace talks.

After his trip to Sweden late last year, Pope Francis also named as cardinal Bishop Anders Arborelius of Stockholm.

Bishop Arborelius, a convert from Lutheranism, is the first Swedish-born Catholic bishop in the country since the Lutheran Reformation.

In El Salvador, Bishop José Gregorio Rosa Chavez, auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, is the first auxiliary bishop ever to be appointed a cardinal while the bishop in charge of his archdiocese remains but a bishop.

His red biretta may be considered a reward for his service to El Salvador in his more than 30 years as auxiliary bishop, especially during the difficult years of the 1980-1992 civil war.

In contrast to other cardinals-to-be, the red hat for Archbishop Juan José Omella Omella is not a dramatic departure from tradition, as Barcelona is traditionally a see with a cardinal. Archbishop Omella’s predecessor, Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, turned 80 on Apr. 29.

The announcement that Archbishop Omella will be created a cardinal comes only two days after the new presidency of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference met with Pope Francis in a private audience in Rome.

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference gathered for its general assembly in Madrid on March 15. Cardinal Ricardo Blázquez Pérez was re-elected as president for a second three-year mandate by a strong majority. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, archbishop of Valencia and former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, was elected vice-president.

In the race for the presidency, Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, got four votes, while Archbishop Omella got just one vote.

By naming Archbishop Omella a cardinal, the Pope might want to show the Spanish Bishops’ Conference the men in whom he places his trust. The two Spaniards, Cardinal Osoro Sierra, appointed by Pope Francis as Archbishop of Madrid, and Archbishop Omella will have gotten their red hats in back to back consistories only seven months apart.

All of the new cardinals are below 80, so they all have the right to vote in a conclave to elect a Pope. Sweden’s Bishop Anders Arborelius is the youngest, as he will turn 68 in September, while Bishop Rosa is the oldest, about to turn 75.

In the last consistory, 13 out of 17 new red hats were given to bishops or archbishops below the age of 80.

Church rules set the maximum number of cardinal electors in a conclave at 120.

With the five new cardinals, Pope Francis has the increased the number of voting cardinals to 121, exceeding the limit by one.

The five new cardinals also slightly re-shape the composition of the College of Cardinals. After the June 28 consistory, Europe will be represented by 53 voting cardinals, compared with 51 at present. Central America’s voting cardinals will increase to five from four. Africa and Asia combined will have 15 cardinals in a prospective conclave, an increase of one.

Other regions’ number of cardinal electors is unchanged: North America still has 17 voting cardinals, South America has 12, and Oceania four.

Up to now, Pope Francis has created 61 cardinals: 49 voting cardinals, and 12 non-voting. The college of voting cardinals is completed by 52 cardinals created by Benedict XVI, and 20 by St. John Paul II.

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Vatican City, Jun 25, 2017 / 02:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- If Jose Brochero doesn’t sound like a Gaucho name, nothing does.

Last year, Pope Francis canonized Saint Brochero, a fellow countryman from Argentina also known as the “Gaucho priest.”

He was beatified in Sept. 2013 by Pope Francis, who said Fr. Brochero was a priest who truly “smelled of his sheep.” He was canonized Oct. 16, 2016.

Saint Brochero was born Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero in Argentina in 1840, the fourth of ten children to Ignacio Brochero and Petrona Davila.

St. Brochero entered seminary at the age of 16, and was ordained a priest at the age of 26 for the Archdiocese of Cordoba.

As a priest, after teaching philosophy at a seminary for a few years, Fr. Brochero was assigned to the large diocese of St. Albert – 1,675 square miles with 10,000 far-flung parishioners in the rural, Great Highlands region of Argentina.

Not deterred by altitude, distance or bad weather, Fr. Brochero was known for riding throughout the countryside of his parish on the back of a mule to bring his people the sacraments, always wearing a poncho and sombrero in the style of a gaucho, or Argentinian cowboy.

On muleback, he carried an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mass kit and a prayer book on his travels so that he was always prepared to offer the sacraments. He established a House of Exercises where his people could participate in spiritual exercises, and helped found a school for girls.

He is also credited with building post and telegraph stations, for building nearly 125 miles of roads, and for helping plan the railroad in the area.

“Woe if the devil is going to rob a soul from me,” he is held to have said, capturing his determined spirit to be close to his people no matter what.

Fr. Brochero was known for being particularly close to the poor and the sick, and helped care for those who contracted cholera during the epidemic in 1867. Eventually, he contracted leprosy from a leper in his parish, causing him to eventually become blind and deaf and to relinquish his parish duties, spending his last few years living with his sisters at home.

Fr. Brochero died on Jan. 26, 1914. His last words were: “Now I have everything ready for the journey.”

A few days after his death, the Catholic newspaper of Cordoba wrote: “It is known that Father Brochero contracted the sickness that took him to his tomb, because he visited at length and embraced an abandoned leper of the area.”  

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI approved a healing miracle attributed to Fr. Brochero, in which 13-year-old Nicolas Flores, who was in a vegetative state after a car accident, was cured through the intercession of the gaucho priest.

An earlier version of this article was published on CNA July 14, 2016.

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Bernini’s famous baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Ricardo André Frantz|Wikipedia|CC BY-SA 3.0

Rome Newsroom, Jun 6, 2024 / 11:52 am (CNA).

The Vatican arrested a former employee in late May for attempted extortion after he sold an allegedly stolen 17th-century manuscript to the Vatican for hundreds of thousands of euros.

According to the Italian newspaper Domani, which broke the news June 6, the art historian and former Vatican employee was questioned and arrested by Vatican gendarmes on May 27 after being handed a check by Vatican Cardinal Mauro Gambetti for 120,000 euros (about $130,000) for the sale of the manuscript.

Alfio Maria Daniele Pergolizzi, who was head of communications for the Fabbrica di San Pietro from 1995–2011, is currently sitting in a Vatican jail after being charged with extortion, fraud, and possession of stolen goods.

The manuscript Pergolizzi attempted to sell to the Vatican dates to 1633 and was written by collaborators of the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The document, which has 36 sheets and 49 drawings, details the amount of gold Bernini needed to decorate the baldachin of St. Peter’s Basilica, according to Domani.

The manuscript was reproduced in a book published in 2021 by a scholar of the baldachin.

Domani reported that the provenance of the allegedly stolen manuscript is currently contested. Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, says it was taken from the archives of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, while Pergolizzi maintains it was given to him from a private collection.

The author of the 2021 book, Maria Grazia D’Amelio, a professor of architectural history at Tor Vergata University in Rome, also claims the manuscript was not in the Fabbrica archives when she was preparing her volume and that she had only ever seen a scanned copy, given to her by Pergolizzi, and never the original.

According to Vatican News, the Vatican prosecutor’s office announced the arrest after it was made public by Domani.

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