The newest cardinals in the Church received their secondary
assignments today from Pope Benedict XVI, indicating how he best thinks
they can contribute to his ministry.
The new posts for the men, who were elevated to the rank of cardinal on
Nov. 24, 2012 were announced in a Jan. 31 Vatican communiqué.
During the ceremony in which the Pope made them cardinals, he told
them, “from now on, you will be even more closely and intimately linked
to the See of Peter … .”
And this will particularly be the case, he said, in the work they do
for the departments of the Roman Curia, the administrative offices that
assist him in his ministry.
Each cardinal will continue to fulfill their normal duties in their
respective places, but these roles will allow them to directly involved
in helping the Pope.
Perhaps the cardinal whose profile was raised the most by today’s
assignments was the Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai. He was named a
member of the Congregation of Oriental Churches, the Church’s highest
appeals court – the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura – the
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant
Peoples, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Cardinal James Michael Harvey, an American, received appointments to
the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the
Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the organization
that oversees the Vatican’s properties and financial investments.
The Nigerian cardinal, John O. Onaiyekan of Abuja, was appointed to the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and to the presidential
committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, who leads the Syro-Malankar
Catholic Archdiocese of Trivandrum, India, was named to the Congregation
for Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious
Dialogue.
Filipino Cardinal Lius Antonio Tagle of Manila was made a member of
the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Pontifical Council
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.
The final appointment the Pope made was to name Cardinal Ruben Salazar
Gomez of Bogota, Colombia as part of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace.