Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa was elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based confederation of Catholic relief and development agencies.Caritas delegates, gathered for their June 3-9 General Assembly in the Vatican, voted June 5 for the cardinal, who will represent the confederation on the world stage as of June 9.
The 64-year-old cardinal will replace Caritas Internationalis' first lay president, Denis Vienot. Cardinal Rodriguez thanked delegates for "the trust and confidence they have shown in me."
Unable to attend the assembly because of meetings with Latin American bishops, the cardinal spoke with Caritas representatives by phone June 5.
"We in Caritas must work hard for the needs of the poor," he said in a June 5 Caritas press statement. He said the world's resources need to be more fairly distributed and Caritas members must "stand up to overcome social injustice."
Development should also be promoted as "the way to alleviate and to overcome poverty," he said. Cardinal Rodriguez is currently head of the Honduran bishops' conference.
He once served as vice president of Caritas Honduras and has a long history of being an outspoken champion of human rights and the poor. He has called poverty and social injustice the real "weapons of mass destruction" of the 21st century.
During his keynote speech to the 2004 Caritas International General Assembly in Rome, Cardinal Rodriguez said, "Economic globalization without the globalization of solidarity is suicide for the poor and thus for the majority of humanity."
Many had predicted that Cardinal Rodriguez, who possesses an easygoing charm and the ability to speak seven languages, would be among the top candidates to replace Pope John Paul II in 2005.
Oscar Rodriguez was born Dec. 29, 1942, in Tegucigalpa, and joined the Salesians at age 19. He earned doctorates in philosophy and theology during studies in El Salvador and Rome and received an advanced degree in clinical psychology and psychotherapy in Austria.
He obtained a pilot's license and studied piano and classical music composition in El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States.
Cardinal Rodriguez held several teaching posts at Catholic universities in Central America before being named auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa in 1978. In 1993, he was named archbishop.
He served as president of the Latin American bishops' council, or CELAM, 1995-99. Pope John Paul named him a cardinal in 2001.
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No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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