Benedict XVI bestowed the cardinal’s hat on 24 new cardinals at a solemn ceremony in St. Peter’s Saturday morning.
Among them, a cardinal from Asia, the Archbishop of Colombo (Sri Lanka), Mgr. Malcolm
Ranjith.
The basilica was packed with crowds, in addition to the full
diplomatic corps, they had come from all over the world, friends and
relatives of the Cardinals (see below for a full list of the new
cardinals).
The greetings and thanks on behalf of all was
delivered by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
Angelo Amato, who recalled the Church's commitment to proclaim the
Gospel in the modern world, despite the "challenges, difficulties and
persecutions" , which may extend to martyrdom.
"You can not
escape - he said - the risk of not being understood, of being rejected
and having to be prepared also for the ultimate witness."
Inspired by the Gospel Benedict XVI reminded the new
cardinals of the lifestyle of the Christian community based on charity,
"the tissue that unites all members of the Body of Christ."
In
the Gospel reading during the ceremony, "Jesus is on his way to
Jerusalem and announces for the third time, pointing to his disciples,
the way by which he intends to bring to completion the work his Father
gave him: this is the humble gift of self to the sacrifice of his life,
the way of the Passion, the way of the Cross".
The Pope reminds us that every ministry of the Church has
always responded to a call from God, it is never the result of a
project or one’s own ambition, but it conforms to his will, to the will
of the Father in Heaven, as Christ at Gethsemane.
"In the Church no one is the master, but we are all called, we are all invited, we all are met and guided by divine grace. And this is also our certainty! Only
by listening again to the words of Jesus, who asks, "Come, follow me",
only by returning to our original vocation is it possible to understand
our presence and mission in the Church as true disciples. "
Benedict XVI said that in the Gospel passage our gaze is
drawn to behavior of "those who are considered the leaders of nations"
to "dominate and oppress." Jesus tells the disciples of a completely different way: " it shall not be so among you."
His
community follows another rule, another logic, another model: "whoever
wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be
first among you will be the slave of all."
So the Pope
notes that "The criterion of the greatness and primacy in God is not
dominion, but service, the diaconate is the fundamental law of the
disciple and the Christian community, and allows us to glimpse something
of the "Sovereignty of God ".
And Jesus also indicates the reference
point: the Son of Man, who came to serve, in short he sums up his
mission under the category of service, intended not as a generic term,
but in the concrete sense of the Cross, of the total gift of life as a "ransom", as redemption for many, and he indicates this as a condition for discipleship.
It
is a message that applies to the Apostles, that applies to the whole
Church, that is particularly true for those who have the responsibility
of guiding the People of God, not the logic of domination, power,
according to human standards, but the logic of bowing to wash the feet, the logic of service, the logic of the Cross which is the basis of any exercise of authority.
In
every age the Church is committed to complying with this logic and to
witness in order to reflect the true “Sovereignty of God", that of
love."
Among the new cardinals, ten are Italians: Angelo Amato,
Francesco Monterisi, Fortunato Baldelli, Paolo Sardi, Mauro Piacenza,
Velasio De Paolis, Gianfranco Ravasi, Paul Romeo, and two over eighty:
Elio Sgreccia and Domenico Bartolucci.
The
other Europeans are two Germans (Reinhard Marx and the octogenarian
Walter Brandmueller), a Swiss (Kurt Koch), from Poland (Kazimierz Nycz)
and one Spanish (José Manuel Estepa Llaurens, not of voting age).
Four
new cardinals from the American continent (the U.S. Raymond Leo Burke
and Donald William Wuerl, the Brazilian Raymundo Damasceno Assis, and
the Ecuadorian Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga).
Another four
are from Africa (Antonios Naguib, Robert Sarah, Medardo Joseph Mazombwe
and Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya), one from Asia (the Sinhalese Don Albert
Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige) and no one from Oceania.
With
the new appointments made by Ratzinger, the College of Cardinals now
comprises 203 cardinals, of which 121 electors and 82 over eighty.
SIC: AN/INT'L