Among the Asians who will participate in the consistory on September 30, on the eve of the Synod, is Monsignor Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang. The “pain” of the pontiff for the new acts of violence in the Holy Land, the hope that a “direct dialogue” will be resumed. At the Angelus, Francis recalled the “things” that God has “hidden” from the wise and revealed to the “little ones” who know how to “receive” them.
Vatican City () – The Patriarch of Jerusalem for Latinos Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Bishop of Hong Kong Stephen Chow Sau-yan and the Bishop of Penang, Malaysia, are also among the new cardinals announced today by Pope Francis at the end of the Angelus, in which he recalled the violence in the Holy Land. The consistory, continued the pontiff, will be held on September 30 – on the eve of the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – to elect 21 new cardinals, 18 of them electors, whose “providence” expresses the “universality” of the Church, which “continues to announce the merciful love of God to all people on earth”.
Among the new cardinals is the bishop of Hong Kong, a “bridge” to mainland China, a land and a people very dear to the pontiff in a context in which the relationship with the Beijing authorities is complicated due to violations of the religious freedom and the renewal of the Sino-Vatican agreement (and the appointment of bishops). For the Middle East, the long-awaited appointment by the Church of the Holy Land of Patriarch Pizzaballa, the first cardinal patriarch, in a complicated phase for the region internally due to the continuous violence between Israelis and Palestinians. A spiral that Pope Francis also evoked today, before the convocation of the Consistory, in which he said that he had learned “with pain” of the “new blood spilled” in the region, without forgetting the massive operation of the army in Jenin. The Pontiff then wished that “the authorities” of both parties “can resume direct dialogue” to “put an end” to the “spiral of violence” and “open paths of reconciliation and peace.” The former patriarchal vicar Mons. Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, commenting on the event with spoke of a “surprise” expected “for more than 20 years.”
At the end of the Marian prayer, the Pope then greeted a group of Ukrainian pilgrims, again asking for prayers for a people “so punished” and that “has suffered so much” and for the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans for rescuing migrants at sea. A thank you that coincides with the words that Francis spoke moments before, remembering the Sunday of the Sea that is celebrated today, in which he greeted all those who work on ships and in the area of the sea, especially cleaning the waters “of filth”. , and entrusted the workers of the sea to the “protection of María Stella Maris”.
Moments earlier, commenting on the words proposed for the Gospel liturgy, the Pope recalled how the “greatness” of God consists in the love with which he acts, but those who believe they are great “do not understand it” and “manufacture a god [minúsculo, ndr] in his image: powerful, inflexible, vengeful”. “Those who are full of themselves, proud, concerned only with their own interests” are incapable of accepting God as Father. Jesus recalls three wealthy cities of the time – Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum- where “he performed many healings”, stressed the pontiff, but “whose inhabitants remained indifferent to his preaching”. Here, the miracles were “spectacular events”, but once “passing interest” had been exhausted, they were “archived” to give I move on to other news of the moment.
On the contrary, the little ones “know how to welcome and Jesus praises the Father for them”, said the Pope, for whom the simple and the little ones are like children, they feel “needed and not self-sufficient”, they are “open to God” and let them “wonder” by their works. “Do we know how to be amazed by the things of God?” the Pope said in an aside. Our life, Francis warned, “is full of miracles”, gestures of love and signs of God’s goodness, but “our hearts can remain indifferent and get used to it”, becoming incapable of “letting ourselves be impressed”, which the Pope defined as ” a beautiful verb”, such as “a photographer’s film”. This is the correct attitude towards the works of God: “photograph them in the mind […] so that they are impressed on the heart, and then reveal them in life through many works of good”.
In the final passage of the Angelus, he urged the faithful to ask themselves if in the face of the “tide of news that overwhelms us” we are capable of dwelling “on the great things that God does” and if, like a child, we are capable of marveling at the well that “silently changes the world”. “May Mary, who rejoiced in the Lord, make us capable of marveling at her love and praising him with simplicity,” the Pope concluded.
Below is the complete list of the new cardinals:
SSE Mons. Robert Francis PREVOST, OSA, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops
HE Msgr. Claudio GUGEROTTI, Prefect of the Department for Oriental Churches
SSE Mons. Víctor Manuel FERNÁNDEZ, Prefect of the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith
SSE Msgr. Emil Paul TSCHERRIG, Apostolic Nuncio
S. Christophe Louis Yves Georges PIERRE, Apostolic Nuncio
HH Msgr. Pierbattista PIZZABALLA, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
HSE Mgr Stephen BRISLIN, Archbishop of Cape Town (Kaapstad)
HE Bishop Ángel Sixto ROSSI, SJ, Archbishop of Córdoba
SSE Mons. Luis José RUEDA APARICIO, Archbishop of Bogotá
SSE Msgrzegorz RYŚ, Archbishop of Łódź,
HSE Mgr Stephen Ameyu Martin MULLA, Archbishop of Juba
SSE Mons. José COBO CANO, Archbishop of Madrid
SSE Mons. Protase RUGAMBWA, Coadjutor Archbishop of Tabora
HH Msgr Sebastian FRANCIS, Bishop of Penang
SSE Mgr Stephen CHOW SAU-YAN, SJ, Bishop of Hong Kong
SSE Mons. François-Xavier BUSTILLO, OFM Conv., Bishop of Ajaccio
SSE Mons. Américo Manuel ALVES AGUIAR, Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon
Rev. Ángel FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME, sdb, Rector Major of the Salesians
In addition, there are three other future non-elector cardinals for having exceeded the age of 80, two archbishops and a religious who have distinguished themselves for their service to the Church:
HE Bishop Agostino MARCHETTO, Apostolic Nuncio.
HE Bishop Diego Rafael PADRÓN SÁNCHEZ, Archbishop Emeritus of Cumaná.
Rev. Luis Pascual DRI, OFM Cap., confessor at the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, Buenos Aires
